PZ 

5 

1 54 

00 Z 



STANDARD 
ERATURE SERIES 




WJ 

Number 52 July, 1902 


HANS ANDERSEN’S 


BEST STORIES 


UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

NEW YORK: 27-29 West 23d Street 

BOSTON : 120 Summer Street 

NEW ORLEANS: 714* and 716 Canal Street 


Four Numbers, 60 cents 



Maury's Geographies 


Are the favorite text-books in a widely extended circle 
of schools. They are carefully kept in harmony with 
present conditions of science and thought. 


Maury's Elementary Geography, revised and enlarged 
— 120 pages — is charming in text and illustrations. 
The |6 ) mpil’s home. 

The . Then the 

contine] 

Horr 
in color 
Colo] 
features 
The 
Each pi 
Maur 
with the 
world o 
color. ] 

Census, 

A suppl 
few mati 



Class. . 

Book / 'tj 


Copyright)* 0 . 


/ 




COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


es are shown 
ow physical 
photographs. 

2 , is in touch 
lowledge the 
.re shown in 
Jnited States 
y of the text, 
rmation on a 


Maury's jsxvisea rnysicai ejeograpny is a specially 
interesting and teachable presentation of the subject, 
for the higher classes in schools, with supplementary 
Recent Facts sheet. 


UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

NEW YORK BOSTON NEW ORLEANS 


STANDARD LITERATURE SERIES 


/ 

HANS ANDERSEN’S 


BEST STORIES 


EDITED AND ADAPTED FOR PUPILS OF 
THIRD READER GRADE 






* 



UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 


NEW YORK 


BOSTON 


NEW ORLEANS 





THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

AUG, 4 1902 

COPYRIGHT ENTRY 

OUAya.'l.- 

CLASSP CL/ XXa No. 

i n i 

COPY B. I 


Copyright, 1902 , by 

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

*** 2516 





CONTENTS 


PAGE 

About Hans Andersen 5 

The Snow Queen : 

I. A Mirror and its Broken Pieces .... 9 

II. A Little Boy and a Little Girl . . . .11 

III. The Witch’s Flower Garden 19 

IV. The Prince and the Princess 27 

V. The Little Robber-Girl . ' 36 

VI. The Lap woman and the Fin woman . . .42 

VII. The Palace of the Snow Queen . . . .47 

The Tinder-Box 54 

The Wild Swans: 

I. The Magic Spell 67 

II. The Flight over the Sea 72 

III. Elisa’s Task 80 

The Brave Tin Soldier 89 

The Nightingale : 

I. The Nightingale in the Forest . . . .97 

II. The Nightingale in the Palace .... 101 

The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep . . .107 

Little Ida’s Flowers 114 







HANS ANDERSEN’S BEST STORIES 

ABOUT HANS ANDERSEN 

A little over a hundred years ago there lived in 
the kingdom of Denmark a little bo*y named Hans 
Christian Andersen. His father was a poor shoe- 
maker, and had to work very hard for a living, but 
he managed to find a great deal of time to read, 
even though he was so poor and books were so 
very hard to get. 

Hans’ parents lived in only one room in the 
garret of a six-story house, and nearly all of the 
furniture in this poor little room was made by 
the shoemaker himself. The walls, however, were 
covered with pictures, and over the workbench was 
a cupboard full of books. By means of a ladder it 
was possible to go out on the roof, and there, in the 
gutters between it and the neighbor’s roof, stood a 
box filled with soil, where vegetables and flowers 
grew. It was exactly like the box that Andersen 
tells us about in his story of the Snow Queen. 

Hans’ mother kept the little room clean and 


6 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


bright. It was lier delight that her curtains and 
bedspread should be as white as snow, and that 
the metal plates and pans which hung upon the 
walls should shine like mirrors. She was not, like 
her husband, fond of books, but her son says that 
she had a “ heart full of love.” 

Hans was the only child, and his parents did 
everything they could to make him happy. While 
his father worked he told his little son the most 
delightful stories. 

Although his parents were so poor, he had not 
the least idea of what it was to be in want. There 
was more than enough for his needs. An old 
woman altered his father’s clothes for him. His 
mother would fasten three or four large pieces of 
silk with pins on his breast, and that had to do for 
vests. A large kerchief was tied round his neck 
with a mighty bow, and when his head was washed 
with soap and his hair was curled he was in all his 
glory. Hans’ mother used to tell him that he was 
brought up like a nobleman’s son. She, as a child, 
had been driven out by her parents to beg. 

When Hans was about nine years old his father 
died. Then his poor mother had to go out wash- 
ing, and Hans was sent to work in a cloth factory. 

He had a very beautiful voice, and the people in 
the factory used to love to hear him sing. It is 


ABOUT IIANS ANDERSEN 


7 


said that when he sang all the looms stood still and 
he had to sing again and again. 

But not long afterward his mother married again, 
and Hans went to school for a while. His mother 
wanted him to be a tailor, but Hans did not care 
for that. Like his father, he loved reading and 
books. He wanted to go to Copenhagen, where he 
thought he would have a better chance to study. 

Hans’ mother would not consent to this, until one 
day an old fortune-teller told her that her son would 
become a great man if she would only give him the 
chance. You know fortune-tellers pretend that they 
can tell what is going to happen. Hans’ mother 
believed in them, so when Hans was about fourteen 
years old she packed up his clothes in a small 
bundle, gave him a little money, and paid the driver 
of a stage-coach to carry the lad to the sea side, 
where he could take the ship for Copenhagen. 

In that city Hans had a very hard time for a 
while. He tried first one thing and then another, 
but did not succeed in anything. Soon his money 
was all gone, and he was almost in despair — but he 
did not give up hope. He was a boy who thought 
of the right thing at the right time. He remembered 
that people had praised his singing, and readiug 
one day in the newspapers about a great singing- 
master in the city, he determined to apply to him. 


8 


HANS ANDERSEN 


The singing-master was a very kind-hearted man. 
He saw that Hans had a good voice, and so he took 
the lad into his own home and treated him almost 
like a son, giving him food, lodging, and lessons 
for nothing. He lived here for some time and was 
doing well, when he took a bad cold and lost his 
voice. Then his troubles began all over again. 

By this time, however, Hans had made a great 
many friends. There w^as one in particular, an offi- 
cer of state, who told the king how bright Hans 
was, and persuaded him to send the boy to a gram- 
mar school to be educated. Hans worked very 
hard, and pleased everybody who had taken an in- 
terest in him. After a time, the king sent him all 
over Europe, and when he came back he wrote many 
books that the people of Denmark were very proud 
of. Soon he became the best known man in Den- 
mark, and was loved next to the king. 

Hans Andersen was always very fond of children; 
and while he wrote many books for grown people, 
those he wrote for his little friends are thought the 
best. He believed that he owed his success in life 
to the stories his father had told him, because they 
made him think and gave him something to talk 
about. In writing these tales he hoped that they 
might do as much for other boys as they had done 
for him. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


THE FIRST STORY, 

WHICH TREATS OF A MIRROR AND ITS BROKEN PIECES 

What I am going to tell you is all about a wicked 
goblin ; indeed he was the very worst of goblins — 
a real demon. 

One day this demon was in the best kind of 
humor, because he had made a magic mirror. When 
good and beautiful things were reflected in this 
mirror they looked bad and ugly ; while all that 
was bad and ugly appeared much worse than it 
really was. 

The most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled 
spinach, and people became really frightful. Their 
faces were so distorted that no one would have 
known them, and a single freckle on a face seemed 
to spread over the whole nose and mouth. When 
a good or kind thought passed through a person’s 
mind, it looked so queer and funny in the mirror 
that the demon chuckled with glee at his flue in- 
vention. 

The demon kept a school for goblins, and all 
those who went to it ran about the country telling 


10 


II A NS ANDERSEN 


people that at last one could see what the things in 
this world really looked like. They went every- 
where with the mirror, till at last there was not a 
country or a human being that had not been reflected 
and distorted in it. 

They even wanted to fly up to heaven to mock 
the angels, and they tried to do so. Higher and 
higher they flew, almost up to heaven ; then the 
mirror began to shake so hard that it fell from 
their hands to the earth, where it broke into mil- 
lions and billions of pieces. 

But now the mirror caused more unhappiness 
than ever before, for some pieces were hardly as big 
as a grain of sand, and these flew about all over 
the world. When they got into people’s eyes they 
stuck there and made everything look wrong, for 
every piece had the same power as the whole 
mirror. 

Some people even got small pieces in their hearts, 
and this was the most terrible of all, for then their 
hearts became like lumps of ice. 

Small pieces of the mirror kept on flying through 
the air, and now you shall hear what happened on 
account of one of them. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


11 


THE SECOND STORY 
A LITTLE BOY AND A LITTLE GIRL 

In a great town where there are many houses and 
people there is not room for every one to have a 
little garden, and most people must be content with 
a few flowers in pots. 

But once there were two poor children who lived 
in a large town and who bad a garden much, bigger 
than a flower pot. They were not brother and sister, 
but they were just as fond of each other as if they 
had been. Their parents lived opposite each other 
in two garrets where the roofs joined. In each gar- 
ret there was a window that opened on the roof, and 
you had only to step across the gutter to get from 
one window to the other. 

Bight across the gutter the parents had placed 
two wooden boxes so that they almost reached from 
one window to the other. In these boxes they 
grew kitchen herbs. In each box was a rose-bush ; 
and there were some sweet peas, too, which hung 
down over the sides of the boxes. The rose-bushes 
shot up long branches, which twined themselves 
round the windows, making them look like bowers. 

The boxes were very high, and the children knew 
they must not climb upon them ; but they often had 


n 


HANS ANDERSEN 


permission to step outside and sit on their little 
stools under the rose-bushes, and there they often 
played happily together. 

In winter these pleasant hours came to an end. 
The windows were often frozen over, but then the 
children heated copper pennies on the stove and 
placed the warm coins against the frozen panes. 
This made little round peep-holes, through which 
gleamed bright eyes — those of the little girl and boy. 

The little boy was called Kay, and the little girl 
Gerda. 

In the summer time they could get to each other 
with one jump ; but in the winter they had first to 
go down one long staircase and up another. 

When the snow was falling the old grandmother 
would say, “ The white bees are swarming.” 

“ Have they a queen-bee, too ? ” asked the little 
boy, for he knew that there was always a queen 
among the real bees. 

“Indeed they have,” said the old grandmother. 
“ She always flies where the swarm is thickest. 
She is the largest of them all and never settles on 
the ground, but flies up to the black clouds again. 
Many a winter night does she fly through the streets 
of the town, looking in through the windows, and 
then the frost on the panes becomes most wonderful 
and looks like flowers.” 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


13 


“ Yes, I have seen that,” said both the children, 
and then they knew it was true. 

In the evening, when little Kay was at home and 
half undressed, he climbed up on the chairs by the 
window and looked out through the little round hole. 
He could see the snowflakes falling outside, and one 
of them, the largest of all, settled on the edge of one 
of the flower-boxes. The snowflake grew larger and 
larger, till at last it became a woman, dressed in the 
most delicate white gauze, which looked as if it were 
made of millions of starry flakes. She was very, 
very beautiful, but made of ice — dazzling, glittering 
ice. Still, she was alive, and her eyes sparkled like 
two bright stars. She nodded toward the window 
and beckoned with her hand. The little boy was 
frightened and jumped down from the chair, and 
just then it seemed as if a large bird flew past the 
window. 

Next day it was clear, frosty weather, and then 
came the thaw, and at last the spring. The sun 
shone ; the green leaves burst forth ; the swallows 
built their nests ; the windows were opened, and the 
two little children again sat in their little garden, 
high up over the gutter on the roof. 

The roses blossomed beautifully that summer. 
The little girl had learned a hymn in which there 
was something about roses, and that made her think 


14 


HANS ANDERSEN 


of her own roses ; and so she sang it to the little boy, 
who joined in, and together they sang : 

‘ ‘ The roses grow in the valley, 

Where the Christ-Child we shall see.” 

And the little ones held each other by the hand, 
kissed the roses, and looked up at the bright sun- 
shine, and spoke to it as if the Christ-Child were 
really there. What beautiful summer days they 
were ! How fresh and sweet it was out among the 
rose-bushes, which seemed as if they would never 
cease to bloom ! 

One day Kay and Gerda sat looking at a picture 
book of animals and birds, when just at the moment 
that the clock in the great church tower struck five, 
Kay said, “Oh, (Tear! something has struck my 
heart ! ” And soon after he said, “ And now I have 
something in my eye ! ” 

The little girl put her arms round his neck. He 
blinked his eye, but no — she could see nothing 
there. 

“ I think it is gone,” he said ; but it was not gone. 
It was one of those pieces from the magic mirror. 
You remember that everything great and good 
which was reflected in it became bad and ugly, 
while everything bad and wicked could be more 
plainly seen. Poor Kay had got one of the frag- 
ments in his heart. It would soon become like a 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


15 


lump of ice. The glass did not cause him any pain, 
but it was there. 

“Why do you cry?” said the boy. “You look 
so ugly when you cry. There is nothing the matter 
with me. Fie!” he cried suddenly, “that rose is 
worm-eaten ! And look, it is quite crooked ! They 
are ugly roses, after all; just like the boxes they are 
in ! ” And then he kicked the box with his foot 
and knocked off two roses. 

“Why, Kay, what are you doing?” cried the 
little girl ; and when he saw her fright he knocked 
off another rose and rushed through his own win- 
dow — away from dear little Gerda. 

And afterwards he would even tease little Gerda, 
who loved him with all her heart. He no longer 
cared for the old games; he said he wanted only 
“what was sensible.” One winter’s day, when the 
snow was falling, he brought a large magnifying 
glass, and held out the tail of his blue coat and let 
the snowflakes fall upon it. 

“Just look through this glass,” he said, and 
Gerda saw that every snowflake was magnified and 
looked like a splendid flower or star with many points. 

“ Is it not curious ? ” said Kay. “Much more inter- 
esting than real flowers. There is not a single fault 
in them. They are quite perfect till they begin to 
melt.” 


16 


HANS ANDERSEN 


Soon after Kay appeared in thick gloves and with 
his sledge at his back. He shouted up the stairs 
to Gerda, “ I have got leave to go sledging in the 
great square, where all the boys are playing.” And 
off he went. 

Many of the boldest boys on the playground used 
to fasten their sledges to the wagons of the country 
people, and in this way they got a good ride. That 
was fine sport ! When the fun was greatest a 
large sledge came driving past. It was painted 
white, and in it sat some one wrapped in a white 
furry coat and wearing a white furry cap. The 
sledge drove twice round the square, and Kay 
managed to get his own little sledge fastened 
to it, and then away he went with it. It went 
faster and faster right through the next street. 
The driver turned round and nodded in a pleas- 
ant way to Kay, as if they were old friends. 
Every time Kay wanted to loosen his sledge, the 
driver nodded to him as if to ask him to stay, and 
so Kay remained on the sledge, and soon they drove 
out through the town gate. 

Then the snow began to fall so heavily that the 
little boy could hardly see a hand before him as 
they rushed onward. Suddenly he let go of the 
rope, to get loose from the large sledge, but it was 
of no use ; his little sledge stuck fast to the other, 





18 


HANS ANDERSEN 


and they sped away as quickly as the wind. Then 
he called out loudly, but nobody heard him. The 
snow fell fast and furious, and the sledge flew 
onward, giving now and then a jump, as if rushing 
over hedges and ditches. The boy was frightened 
and tried to say a prayer, but he could only remem- 
ber the multiplication table. 

The snowflakes became larger and larger, till at 
last they looked like big white birds. All at once 
they sprang on one side, the great sledge stopped, 
and the person who had been driving stood up. 
The coat and the cap, which looked like fur, were 
made entirely of snow ; they fell off, and 'Kay saw 
a lady, tall and lovely. It was the Snow Queen. 

“We have got on quickly,” she said. “But you 
are shivering with cold. Creep into my fur.” 
Then she put him beside her in the sledge and 
wrapped the skin round him, and he felt as if he 
were sinking into a snowdrift. 

“ Do you still feel cold ? ” she asked, as she kissed 
him on his forehead. The kiss was colder than 
ice; it went right through his heart, which was 
already half frozen ; he felt as if he were going to die, 
but only for a moment, and then he was quite well 
again, and did not feel the cold round him any more. 

“ My sledge ! don’t forget my sledge ! ” This was 
the first thing he thought of, and then he saw that 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


19 


it was tied to one of the white birds, which came 
rushing on behind them with the sledge on its back. 
The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more, and then 
little Gerda and the grandmother and all at home 
passed out of Kay’s mind altogether. 

“ I shall give you no more kisses,” she said, “ or I 
should kiss you to death.” 

Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful. She 
did not now seem to be made of ice, as when she sat 
outside of the window and beckoned to him. 

He looked up into the vast space above as she 
flew higher and higher with him upon a black cloud, 
while the storm whistled and roared. They flew 
over woods and lakes, over sea and land. Below them 
the cold blast scoured the plains, the wolves howled, 
and over them flew’ the black, screeching crows, 
while the moon shone bright and clear on the spark- 
ling snow. The long, dreary winter’s night passed ; 
by day the little boy slept at the feet of the Snow 
Queen. 

THE THIRD STORY 
THE WITCH’S FLOWER GARDEN 

But how did little Gerda fare when Kay did not re- 
turn? Where could he be? Nobody knew; nobody 
could give any news of him. The boys could only 
tell that they had seen him tie his sledge to a large, 


20 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


splendid one wliich drove down the street and out 
through the town gate. Nobody knew what had 
become of him. Many tears were shed for him, and 
little Gerda cried bitterly for a long time. Then 
they said he was dead ; that he had been drowned 
in the river which flowed past the town. Oh, those 
were, indeed, long, dreary winter days. 

Then came once more the spring with the warm 
sunshine. 

“ Kay is dead and gone,” said little Gerda. 

“ I don’t believe it,” said the sunshine. 

“ He is dead and gone,” she said to the swallows. 

“ We don’t believe it,” they answered, and at last 
little Gerda did not believe it herself. 

“ I will put on my new red shoes,” she said one 
morning, “ those that Kay has never seen, and then 
I will go down to the river and ask it about him.” 

It was quite early. ■ She kissed her old grand- 
mother, who was asleep, put on the red shoes, and 
went out quite alone through the town gate toward 
the river. 

“ Is it true that you have taken my little play- 
mate? I will make you a present of my red shoes 
if you will give him back to me,” she said to the 
river. 

And she thought the waves nodded to her 
strangely. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


21 


Then she took off her red shoes that she liked bet- 
ter than anything else she had, and threw them 
both out into the river, but they fell near the bank 
and the little waves carried them back to land. It 
seemed as if the river would not take the things 
she loved the best, because it could not give little 
Kay back to her. But she thought the shoes had 
not been thrown out far enough, and so she climbed 
into a boat which was lying among the reeds, and 
went to the farthest end of it and threw the shoes 
into the water again. 

The boat was not fastened, and its motion as she 
got into it made it drift from the bank. When she 
noticed this she hurried to the other end again, but 
before she could jump to the shore the boat was a 
yard from the bank, and now it began to drift faster 
and faster. 

Then little Gerda became quite frightened and 
began to cry, but no one heard her except the spar- 
rows, and they could not carry her ashore ; but they 
flew along the banks singing, as if to comfort her : 
u Here we are ! Here we are ! ” 

The boat drifted with the stream, while little 
Gerda sat quite still in her stocking feet. The little 
red shoes floated along behind, but she could not 
reach them, and they did not overtake the boat, be- 
cause it drifted so fast. 


22 


HANS ANDERSEN 


The banks on both sides of the river were very 
pretty. There were beautiful flowers, old trees, and 
green sloping fields with sheep and cows, but not a 
human being was to be seen. 

“ Perhaps the river is carrying me to little Kay,” 
thought Gerda, and then she became more cheerful, 
and stood up in the boat looking at the beautiful 
green banks. And so the boat sailed on till she 
came to a large cherry orchard where there was a 
little house with strange red and blue windows and 
a thatched roof. 

Gerda called loudly, and there came a very old 
woman out of the house, leaning on a crutch. She 
wore a large hat to shade her eyes from the sun ; 
on the hat were painted all sorts of lovely flowers. 

“Yon poor little child,” said the old woman, 
“ how did you manage to drift so far into the wide 
world on such a rapid, rolling stream ? ” And then 
the old woman went right out into the water, 
hooked her crutch fast into the boat, pulled it 
ashore, and lifted little Gerda out of it. 

Gerda was glad to get on land again, but she 
was a little afraid of the strange old woman. 

“ Come, tell me who you are, and how you came 
here,” she said. 

And Gerda told her everything, the old woman 
shaking her head all the time and saying, “ Hem ! 



24 


HANS ANDERSEN 


Hem ! ” When Gerda had told her all and asked 
her if she had not seen little Kay, the woman said 
he had not passed by there, but it was very likely 
that he would come. 

She told Gerda to be of good cheer and taste 
her cherries and look at her flowers. “ They are 
much prettier than any picture book,” she said. 
She then took Gerda by the hand and went into 
the little house, locking the door after her. 

The windows were high up near the ceiling, and 
the panes were red, blue, and yellow. The daylight 
shone through them in such a strange way, in all 
sorts of colors. On the table were the most deli- 
cious cherries, and Gerda ate as many as she liked. 
And while she was eating, the old woman combed 
out her long flaxen ringlets with a golden comb, 
and the glossy curls hung down on each side of the 
little round, pleasant face, which looked fresh and 
blooming as a rose. 

“ I have been longing for a dear little girl like 
you,” said the old woman. “ I know we shall get 
on well together.” And while she went on comb- 
ing little Gerda’s hair, the child forgot about her 
little playmate, Kay, for the old woman was a 
witch, though not a wicked one. She only prac- 
tised witchcraft for her own amusement, and did 
so now, because she wanted to keep little Gerda. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


25 


She, therefore, went out into her garden and 
stretched out her crutch toward all the rose-trees, 
and beautiful though they were, she caused them all 
to sink into the dark ground, so that no one could 
tell where they had once stood. The old woman 
was afraid that if Gerda saw the roses she would 
think of her own, and then remember little Kay 
and run away. 

She now led Gerda out into the flower garden. 
Oh, how fragrant and lovely it was ! Every flower 
of every season was there in full bloom ; no picture 
book could be more beautiful. Gerda jumped for 
joy, and played till the sun went down behind the 
tall cherry trees. Then she was put to bed in a 
splendid bed with red silk quilts embroidered 
with violets, and there she slept, and dreamed 
happily all the night. 

For many days after, Gerda played with the 
flowers in the warm sunshine. She knew every 
flower, and yet, although there were so many, she 
seemed to feel that one was missing, but she did 
not know which it was. Then, one day, as she sat 
looking at the old woman’s hat with the painted 
flowers, she noticed that the prettiest of them all 
was a rose. The old woman had forgotten that 
she had a rose on her hat when she made all the 
roses in the garden sink into the earth. 


26 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“What, are there no roses here?” cried Gerda; 
and she ran among the flower beds, looking and 
searching, but there was not one to be found. 

Then she sat down and cried, and her hot tears 
happened to fall just where a rose-tree had sunk 
into the ground. The warm tears moistened the 
earth, and the rose-tree sprouted up at once in full 
bloom, just as when it had disappeared. Gerda 
embraced it, kissed the roses, and thought of the 
beautiful roses at home, and with them of little 
Kay. 

“ Oh, how I have been losing my time ! ” said the 
little girl. “ Why, I was going to find Kay. Do 
you know where he is ? ” she asked the roses. “ Do 
you think he is dead ? ” 

“He is not dead,” said the roses. “We have 
been under the ground where all the dead are, but 
Kay was not there.” 

“ Thank you,” said little Gerda, and she went to 
the other flowers and looked into their cups and 
asked, “Do you know where little Kay is ?” 

But all the flowers were standing in the sunshine, 
dreaming the fairy tale of their oavii lives. Gerda 
heard many of these stories, but none of the flowers 
knew anything about Kay. 

Then she ran to the far end of the garden. The 
gate was shut, but she fumbled with the rusty 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


27 


latch till it gave way, and the gate flew open, and 
then little Gerda ran out, barefooted, into the wide 
world. She looked back three times, but no one 
was following her. At last she could run no longer, 
so she sat down to rest on a large stone ; and when 
she looked round she saw that the summer was 
over, and that it was late in the autumn. She had 
known nothing of this in the beautiful garden, 
where the sun shone and the flowers grew all the 
year round. 

“ Oh, dear, how I have wasted my time ! ” said 
little Gerda. “ It is autumn ; I must not rest any 
longer.” And she rose to go on ; but her little feet 
were wounded and sore, and everything round her 
looked bleak and cold. Oh, how dark and dreary 
the whole world seemed ! 

THE FOURTH STORY 
THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS 

Gerda sat down to rest again, and just opposite 
the place where she sat she saw a great crow come 
hopping across the snow. He stood looking at her 
for some time, and then he wagged his head and 
said, “ Caw, caw ; good-day, good-day.” Then he 
asked where she was going all alone in the wide 
world. 


28 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


Gerda told the crow the story of her life and asked 
him if he had not seen Kay. 

The crow nodded his head gravely and said, 
“ Perhaps I have — it may be.” 

“ What ? You don’t say so ! ” cried the little girl, 
and she almost hugged the crow to death in her joy. 

“ Gently, gently ! ” said the crow. “ I believe I 
know. I think it may be little Kay, but he has 
certainly forgotten you by this time for the princess.” 

“ Does he live with a princess ? ” asked Gerda. 

“Yes — listen,” replied the crow; “but it is so 
difficult to speak your language. If you understand 
the crow’s language then I can explain it better. 
Do you ? ” 

“No, I have never learned it,” said Gerda, “but 
grandmother understands it and used to speak it to 
me. I wish I had learned it.” 

“ It does not matter,” answered the crow. “ I will 
tell you as well as I can, although I am afraid it 
will be badly done.” And he told what he knew. 

“ In the kingdom where we now are,” said he, 
“there lives a princess who is very wise and good. 
A short time ago when she was sitting on her throne 
she happened to hum a song which began with 

‘ Why should I not be married ? ’ 

“‘Yes, there is something in that,’ she said, and 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


29 


then she made up her mind to marry, if she could 
find a husband who knew what to say if he were 
spoken to ; not one who could do nothing but look 
grand, for that was so tiresome. She called all her 
court ladies together, and when they heard what she 
was thinking about they were much pleased. ‘We 
are so glad to hear it,’ said they ; ‘ we were talking 
about it ourselves the other day.’ ” 

“ You may believe that every word I tell you is 
true,” said the crow, “ for I have a tame sweetheart 
who goes freely about the palace, and she told me 
all this.” 

Of course his sweetheart was a crow, for “birds 
of a feather flock together,” and one crow always 
chooses another crow. 

“The newspapers at once announced that every 
good-looking young man would be received at the 
palace and allowed to speak with the princess, and 
that the one who pleased her most by his speech 
would be chosen by her for a husband.” 

“ Yes, yes, you may believe me, it is all as true 
as I sit here,” said the crow. 

“ The young men came in crowds to the palace, and 
there was much crushing and running to and fro, but 
no one was successful either on the first or the second 
day. They could all speak well enough when they 
were out in the street, but when they came through 


30 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


the palace gates and saw the guards in silver uniform 
and the lackeys in gold livery standing on the stair- 
cases, and the great halls lighted up, they became 
quite confused, and when they stood before the 
throne on which the princess sat they could do 
nothing but repeat the last words she had said, and 
she did not care to hear that over again.” 

“ There was a whole row of them from the town 
gate to the palace. I went in myself to have a 
look,” said the crow. 

“ But Kay ! Tell me about little Kay,” said 
Gerda. “ Was he among the crowd ?” 

“ Patience ! patience ! We are just coming to him. 
It was on the third day that a small person, without 
a horse or carriage, came marching quite cheerfully 
right up to the palace. His eyes shone like yours ; 
he had beautiful long hair, but his clothes were 
very poor.” 

“ That was Kay,” cried Gerda joyfully. “ Oh, 
now I have found him ! ” And she clapped her 
hands. 

“He had a little knapsack on his back,” said the 
crow. 

“ No, it must have been his sledge,” said Gerda, 
“for he had the sledge with him when he left 
home.” 

“ That may be,” said the crow. “ I did not take 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


31 


much notice, but I heard from my sweetheart that 
when he came in through the palace gate and saw 
the life guards in silver and the lackeys in gold 
on the staircase, he was not in the least afraid. He 
nodded to them and said, L It must be very tiresome 
to stand on the staircase ; I prefer to go inside.’ 

“ The rooms were blazing with light, and the peo- 
ple of the court dressed in beautiful clothes were 
standing about; it was enough to make any one feel 
serious. His boots creaked dreadfully, but he was 
not a bit frightened.” 

“ That must have been Kay,” said Gerda. “ I 
know he had new boots on ; I heard them creak in 
grandmother’s room.” 

“Yes, they did creak,” said the crow, “but he 
went boldly up to the princess, who was seated on 
a pearl as large as a spinning-wheel, and all the 
ladies of the court were present with their maids 
and all the gen tlemen-in- waiting with their servants.” 

“It must be very fine,” said little Gerda; “but 
did Kay get the princess ? ” 

“If I had not been a crow,” said he, “I would 
have married her myself, although I am engaged. 
They say he spoke as well as I do when I speak the 
crow’s language ; at least that’s what my sweetheart 
tells me. He was very free and agreeable ; but he 
said that he had not come to woo the princess, but 


32 


HANS ANDERSEN 


to hear her wisdom ; and he was as pleased with 
her as she was with him.” 

“That was certainly Kay,” said Gerda. “He was 
so clever; he could do mental arithmetic even in 
fractions ! Oh, will you not take me to the palace?” 

“ It is very easy to ask that,” replied the crow, 
“ but how are we to manage it ? I will talk it over 
with my tame sweetheart ; she is sure to give good 
advice. For I must tell you it will be very hard for 
a little girl like you to enter the palace.” 

“ Oh, but when Kay hears I am there he will be 
sure to come out and take me in.” 

“Wait forme b}^ the stile over yonder,” said the 
crow, with a twist of his head as he flew away. 

It was late in the evening before the crow re- 
turned. 

“Caw, caw,” he croaked. “My sweetheart sends 
you her kind love, and here is a piece of bread for 
you which she took from the kitchen. There is 
plenty of bread there, and she thinks you must be 
hungry. You cannot possibly get into the palace 
by the front entrance — for, look, you are barefooted. 
The guards in silver and the lackeys in gold would 
not allow it. But don’t cry ; you shall get in some- 
how. My sweetheart knows a little back staircase 
which leads up to the sleeping apartments, and she 
knows where to find the key.” 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


33 


Then they went into the garden through the 
great avenue where the leaves were falling, and 
they could see the lights in the palace. And when 
the lights were put out one after another, the crow 
led little Gerda to a back door, which stood ajar. 

Oh, how Gerda’s heart was beating ! She felt as 
if she were going to do something wrong, and yet 
she only wanted to know where little Kay was. 

They were now on the stairs, where a small lamp 
was burning on the top of a cupboard. In the 
middle of the room stood the tame crow, turning 
her head in all directions and staring at Gerda, 
who curtsied as her grandmother had taught her 
to do. 

“ My sweetheart has spoken very highly of you, 
my little lady,” said the tame crow. “ Your story is 
really very touching. If you will take the lamp 
I will go in front. We will go straight ahead, 
along this way ; then we shall meet no one.” 

“It seems to me as if somebody were behind 
us,” said Gerda, as something rushed by her like 
shadows on the wall. 

“They are only dreams,” said the crow; “they 
come to take the thoughts of our royal folks out 
a-hunting.” 

They now entered the first room, the walls of 
which were hung with rose-colored satin embroid- 
3 


34 


HANS ANDERSEN 


ered with flowers. There the dreams again flitted 
by them, but so quickly that Gerda could not make 
out the royal persons. 

As they passed on, each room was more splendid 
than the last; it was enough to bewilder any one. 
At length they reached a bedroom with two beds 
in it. The one in which the princess lay was white ; 
the other was red ; and it was in this tkat Gerda 
was to look for little Kay. 

She pushed aside the curtains of the red bed and 
saw a little brown neck. Oh, that must be Kay ! 
She called his name loudly, and held the lamp over 
him. He woke and turned his head round — it was 
not little Kay! The prince only looked like him. 

The princess peeped out of her lily-white bed 
and asked what was the matter. Little Gerda then 
began to cry and told them her whole story and 
all that the crows had done for her. 

"You poor child!” said the prince and the 
princess ; then they praised the crows, and said that 
they should be rewarded. 

"Would you like to have your freedom and fly 
away?” asked the princess, "or would you prefer 
to be raised to the position of court-crows, with all 
that is left in the kitchen for yourselves ? ” 

Then both the crows curtsied, and begged to stay 
at the palace, where it was so nice and comfortable. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


35 


Then the prince got out of his bed and gave it 
up to Gerda, and she lay down. She folded her 
little hands and thought, “How good men and 
animals are to me ! ” and she closed her eyes and 
fell into a sweet sleep. 

The next day she was dressed from head to foot 
in silk and velvet, and invited to stay at the palace 
and enjoy herself ; but she only asked for a small 
coach and a horse to draw it, and a little pair of 
shoes, so that she might go out into the wide 
world to seek for Kay. 

And she got not only the shoes, but a muff and 
beautiful clothes ; and when she was ready to start, 
a new coach of pure gold, with four horses, was 
waiting for her at the door. The coachman and the 
footman wore gold crowns upon their heads. The 
coach was well stored with cakes, and under the 
seats were fruit and nuts. The prince and the prin- 
cess themselves helped her into the coach, wished 
her success, and bade her farewell. 

The crow from the forest, who was now married, 
went with her for the first ten miles ; and the tame 
crow stood in the doorway flapping her wings. 

Then, after a few miles, the crow also said “Fare- 
well,” and this parting was very sad. The crow 
flew up into a tree and flapped his black wings as 
long as he could see the coach. 


36 


HANS ANDERSEN 


THE FIFTH STORY 
THE LITTLE ROBBER-GIRL 

The coach drove on through a thick forest, where 
it lighted up the way like a torch. It dazzled the 
eyes of some robbers, who were watching it. 

“It’s gold ! It’s gold ! ” they cried, as they rushed out 
and seized the horses. They killed the coachman and 
the footman, and dragged Gerda out of the carriage. 

“ She shall play with me ! ” said a little girl who 
was the daughter of an ugly old robber-woman. 
“ She shall give me her muff and her pretty dress 
and sleep with me in my bed.” 

“I will have a ride in the coach,” said the little 
robber-girl ; and she would have her own way, for she 
was spoiled and petted by the robbers. So she and 
Gerda seated themselves in the coach and drove 
away, over stumps and stones, into the depths of 
the forest. 

The little robber-girl was about the same size as 
Gerda, but stronger; she had broader shoulders 
and a darker skin; her eyes were quite black, and 
she had a sad look. 

She clasped little Gerda round her waist, and 
said, “ They shall not kill you as long as I do not 
get angry with you. I suppose you are a princess.” 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


87 


“ No,” said Gerda ; and then she told her story, 
and how fond she was of little Kay. 

The robber-girl looked earnestly at her, nodded 
her head slightly, and said, “They slia’nt kill you, 
even if I do get angry with you, for I will do it my- 
self.” And then she wiped Gerda’s eyes and put 
her own hands into the beautiful muff which was 
so soft and warm. 

The coach stopped in the courtyard of a robber’s 
castle, the walls of which were full of cracks from 
top to bottom. Ravens and crows flew in and 
out of the holes, while great bull-dogs, each of which 
looked as if it could swallow a man, were jumping 
about ; but they were not allowed to bark. 

In the large, smoky old hall a big fire was burn- 
ing in the middle of the stone floor. There was no 
chimney, so the smoke went up to the ceiling and 
found a way out for itself. Soup was boiling in 
a large caldron , 1 and hares and rabbits were being 
roasted on large spits . 2 

“You shall sleep here with me and all my little 
animals to-night,” said the robber-girl after they had 
something to eat and drink. Then they went over 
into a corner where there were blankets and some 
straw. 


1 Caldron— a large kettle or boiler. 

2 Spit— an iron spike on which meat is roasted before an open fire. 


38 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


On poles and laths above their heads were sitting 
about a hundred pigeons. They all seemed to be 
asleep, but they turned their heads slightly when 
the little girls came into the room. 

“ They are all mine,” said the little robber-girl. 

“ There are the wood-pigeons ! ” she went on, and 
pointed to a hole high up on the wall, with a num- 
ber of laths nailed across it. “Both those rascals 
would fly away at once, if they were not closely 
locked up. And here is my old sweetheart, ‘ Ba ” 
and she dragged out a reindeer by the horn. He 
wore a bright copper ring round his neck, and was 
tied up. “We have to look closely after him, too, 
else he also would run away from us. Every even- 
ing I tickle his neck with that sharp knife of mine, 
of which he is terribly afraid.” And the robber-girl 
drew a long knife from a chink in the wall, and let 
it slide gently over the reindeer’s neck. The poor 
animal began to kick, and the little robber-girl 
laughed, and pulled down Gerda into bed with her. 

“ Do you take the knife to bed with you ? ” asked 
Gerda, looking at it in great fright. 

“I always sleep with the knife by me,” said the 
robber-girl. “One never knows what may happen. 
But now tell me again all about little Kay, and why 
you went out into the wide world.” 

Then Gerda told her story all over again, while 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


39 


the wood-pigeons were cooing up in their cage and 
the other birds slept. The little robber-girl put one 
arm across Gerda’s neck, and held the knife in the 
other hand, and was soon sleeping soundly. But 
Gerda could not close her eyes at all, for she did not 
know whether she was to live or die. The robbers 
came in and sat round the fire, singing and drinking. 
It was a terrible sight for a little girl ! 

Then the wood-pigeons suddenly cried, “ Coo ! 
Coo ! we have seen little Kay. A white bird car- 
ried his sledge while he sat in the Snow Queen’s 
sledge as they drove through the forest and we lay 
in our nests. Her icy breath killed all the young 
ones except us two. Coo ! Coo ! ” 

“ What are you saying up there ? ” cried Gerda. 
“ Where was the Snow Queen going ? Do you know 
anything about it ? ” 

“She was going to Lapland, no doubt, where 
there is always snow and ice. Just ask the reindeer 
who is fastened over there.” 

“ Yes ; there is ice and snow there,” said the rein- 
deer. “ It is a glorious place ; you can leap and run 
about freely on the sparkling, icy plains. The Snow 
Queen has her summer tent there, but her strong 
castle is at the North Pole, on an island called Spitz- 
bergen.” 

“ Oh, Kay, little Kay ! ” sighed Gerda. 


40 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“Lie still,” said the robber-girl; “or you shall 
feel my knife.” 

In the morning Gerda told her everything that 
the wood-pigeons had said, and the little robber-girl 
looked quite serious, but nodded her head and said, 
“It doesn’t matter ! it doesn’t matter ! Do you know 
where Lapland is ? ” she asked the reindeer. 

“ Who should know better than I ? ” the reindeer 
said, its eyes sparkling with excitement. “ I was 
born and brought up there, and used to run about 
the snow-covered plains.” 

“Now listen,” said the robber-girl. . “ All our men 
are gone away. Only mother is here, and here she 
will stay; but at noon she always drinks out of a 
great bottle, and afterwards sleeps for a little while. 
Then I’ll do something for you ! ” 

When the mother had gone to sleep, the little 
robber-maiden went to the reindeer and said, “I 
should like very much to tickle your neck a few 
times more with my knife, for it makes you look so 
funny ; but never mind, I will undo your rope and 
set you free, so that you may set out for Lapland. 
But you must make good use of your legs, and carry 
this little maiden to the palace of the Snow Queen, 
where her playfellow is. You have heard what she 
told me, for she spoke loud enough, and you were 
listening. ” 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


41 


The reindeer jumped for joy ; and the little rob- 
ber-girl lifted Gerda on his back, and had the fore- 
thought to tie her on, and even to give her a little 
cushion for a saddle. 

“ Here are your fur-lined boots,” said she, “ for it 
will be very cold ; but I must keep the muff — it is 
so pretty. However, you shall not be frozen for the 
want of it. Here are my mother’s large, warm mit- 
tens ; they will reach up to your elbows. Let me 
put them on. There, now your hands look just like 
my mother’s.” 

Gerda wept for joy. 

“I don’t like to see you fret,” said the little rob- 
ber-girl. “You ought to look quite happy now. 
And here are two loaves and a ham, so that you 
need not starve.” 

The things were fastened upon the reindeer, and 
then the little robber-maiden opened the door, coaxed 
in all the great dogs, cut the string with which the 
reindeer was fastened, and said, “ Now run ! but 
mind you take good care of the little girl.” 

And Gerda stretched out her hands with the large 
gloves toward the robber-girl and said, “Farewell,” 
and away flew the reindeer — over stumps and stones, 
through the great forest, over marshes and plains, 
as quickly as he could. The wolves howled, and 
the ravens screamed; while up in the sky quivered 


42 


HANS ANDERSEN 


red lights like flames of fire. “There are my old 
Northern Lights,” said the reindeer. “See how they 
flash ! ” And he ran on day and night still faster 
and faster. But the loaves and the ham were all 
eaten by the time they reached Lapland. 

THE SIXTH STORY 
THE LAPWOMAN AND THE FINWOMAN 

They stopped at a little hut. The roof sloped 
nearly down to the ground, and the door was so low 
that the family had to creep on their hands and 
knees when they went in and out. There was no 
one at home, except an old Lapwoman, who was 
cooking fish over an oil lamp. 

The reindeer told her Gerda’s story, after having 
first told his own which seemed to him more im- 
portant ; but Gerda was so pinched with the cold 
that she could not speak. 

“ Oh, you poor thing,” said the Lapwoman, “ you 
have a long way to go yet. You must travel four 
hundred miles into Finland. The Snow Queen 
lives there now ; she burns blue lights every even- 
ing. I will write one or two lines on a dried cod- 
fish, for I have no paper, and you can take it from 
me to the Finwoman who lives there. She can tell 
you more about it than I can.” 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


43 


So when Gerda was warmed and had taken 
something to eat and drink, the woman wrote a few 
words on the dried fish, and told Gerda to take 
great care of it. Then she tied her again on the 
reindeer, and he set off at full speed. Up in the 
heavens the beautiful Northern Lights blazed the 
whole night long ; and then they came to Finland, 
and knocked at the chimney of the Finwoman’s 
hut — for it had no door above the ground. 

The Finwoman was small and dirty looking. She 
wore scarcely any clothes, for it was very hot in 
the hut. 

She loosened little Gerda’s dress, and took off 
the fur boots and the mittens, or Gerda would 
have been unable to bear the heat. Then she 
placed a piece of ice on the reindeer’s head, and 
read what was written on the dried fish. After she 
had read it three times she knew it by heart ; then 
she popped the fish into the saucepan, as she knew 
it was good to eat, and she never wasted anything. 

The reindeer told his own story first and then 
little Gerda’s, and the Finwoman blinked with her 
knowing eyes, but said nothing. 

“ You are so clever,” said the reindeer. “ Can 
you not give this little maiden something which 
will make her as strong as twelve men, to overcome 
the Snow Queen ? ” 


44 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“The power of twelve men ! ” said the Finwoman. 
“That would be of very little use.” But she went 
to a shelf and took down and unrolled a large skin, 
on which were written queer looking marks, and 
she read till the perspiration ran down from her 
forehead. 

But the reindeer begged so hard for little Gerda, 
and Gerda looked at the Finwoman with such 
tender, tearful eyes, that her own eyes began to 
blink again, and, leading the reindeer into a corner, 
the Finwoman put some fresh ice on his head and 
whispered : 

“ Little Kay is really with the Snow Queen, but 
he likes it there so much that he believes it is the 
finest place in the world ; and this is because he has 
a piece of broken glass in his heart and a fragment 
of it in his eye. These must be got out, or he will 
never be himself again, and the Snow Queen will 
keep her power over him.” 

“ But can you not give little Gerda something to 
help her overcome this power ? ” 

“ I can give her no greater power than she has 
already,” said the woman. “Don’t you see how 
strong that is? Do you not see how men and 
animals serve her, and how she, barefooted, has got 
on so safely through the world ? She cannot 
receive any power from me greater than she now 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


45 


has, which consists in her own purity and innocence 
of heart. If she cannot herself get to the Snow 
Queen and remove the glass fragments from little 
Kay, we can do nothing to help her. Two miles 
from here the Snow Queen’s garden begins. You 
can carry the little girl so far and set her down 
by the large bush which stands in the snow, cov- 
ered with red berries. Don’t stay gossiping, but 
come back here as quickly as you can.” Then 
the Finwoman lifted little Gerda upon the rein- 
deer, and he ran away with her as quickly as he 
could. 

“ Oh, I have forgotten my boots and mittens,” 
cried Gerda, as soon as she felt the cutting cold; 
but the reindeer dared not stop — he ran on till he 
reached the bush with the red berries. Here he set 
Gerda down, and he kissed her, and the great, 
bright tears trickled over the animal’s cheeks. Then 
he left her and ran back as fast as he could. 

There stood poor Gerda, without shoes, without 
gloves, in the midst of cold, dreary, ice-bound Fin- 
land. 

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Soon 
she came upon a whole army of snowflakes. They 
did not, however, fall from the sky, which was 
quite clear and glittered with the Northern Lights. 
The snowflakes ran along the ground, and the 


40 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


nearer they came to her the larger they seemed. 
Gerda remembered how large and beautiful they 
looked through the magnifying glass. But these 
were larger and more terrible, for they were alive 
and were the guards of the Snow Queen, and had 
the strangest shapes. Some were like porcupines ; 
others like twisted serpents, with their heads 
stretching out; and some few were like little fat 
bears with bristling hairs; but all were dazzlingly 
white, and all were living snowflakes. 

Little Gerda then said the Lord’s Prayer. The 
cold was so great that she could see her own 
breath come out of her mouth like steam as she 
said the words. Her breath grew thicker and 
thicker and formed itself into bright little angels, 
who grew larger and larger as soon as they touched 
the ground. They all had helmets on their heads 
and spears and shields in their hands. Their num- 
bers increased every moment, and when Gerda had 
finished saying her prayer there was a whole army 
round her. 

They struck at the terrible snowflakes with 
their spears and shattered them into a hundred 
pieces, and now little Gerda could go safely on her 
way. The angels stroked her hands and feet, so 
that she did not feel the cold so much, and she 
walked on quickly toward the Snow Queen’s palace. 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


47 


But now we must see what Kay was doing. In 
truth, he thought not of little Gerda, and least of 
all that she could be standing in front of the palace. 

THE SEVENTH STORY 

THE PALACE OF THE SNOW QUEEN AND WHAT HAP- 
PENED THERE 

The walls of the palace were made of the drifting 
snow and the windows and doors of the cutting 
winds. There were more than a hundred rooms in 
it, all as if they had been formed of snow blown 
together. The largest of them stretched for many 
miles. The Northern Lights shed their vivid beams 
upon them ; but oh, how cold and empty they were 
in their dazzling whiteness. 

In the midst of this empty, endless hall of snow 
was a frozen lake which had cracked into a thousand 
pieces, and every piece was exactly like the other. 
In the centre of this lake, which she called “ The 
Mirror of Reason,” sat the Snow Queen when she 
was at home. 

Little Kay was quite blue, almost black with cold, 
but he did not feel it, for the Snow Queen had 
kissed away the icy shiverings, and his heart was 
already a lump of ice. He dragged some sharp, flat 
pieces of ice to and fro and placed them together in 


48 


HANS ANDERSEN 


all kinds of positions, as if he wished to make some- 
thing out of them, just as when we try to make 
different figures with little pieces of wood, which 
we call a “ Chinese puzzle.” 

Kay’s figures were very hard to make. It was 
the icy game of reason at which he played, and in 
his eyes the figures were very remarkable and of the 
highest importance. He thought this, because the 
splinter of glass was still sticking in his eye. Kay 
formed complete figures which made written words, 
but he was never able to form the word he most 
wanted. It was the word “ Eternity.” 

The Snow Queen had said, “ If you can make 
that figure you shall be your own master, and I will 
make you a present of the whole world and a pair 
of new skates.” But he could not do it. 

“ Now I must hasten away to warmer countries,” 
said the Snow Queen. “ I will go and look into the 
black craters of the tops of the burning mountains. 
I shall make them look white, which will be good 
for them and for the lemons and the grapes ” 

Away flew the Snow Queen, leaving little Kay 
quite alone in the great hall. He sat and looked at 
the pieces of ice. He was thinking so deeply and 
sat so still that any one might have supposed he was 
frozen. 

Just then little Gerda entered the palace through 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


49 


the great gate where a biting wind was raging, but 
she said a little prayer and the winds sank down as 
if they were going to sleep. On she went till she 
came to the large empty hall and caught sight of 
Kay. She knew him at once. She flew to him and 
threw her arms round his neck and held him fast, 
while she cried, “ Kay, dear little Kay, I have found 
you at last.” 

But he sat quite still, stiff and cold. 

Then little Gerda began to cry, shedding hot tears, 
which fell upon his breast and made their way into 
his heart and thawed the lump of ice and washed 
away the little piece of glass which had stuck there. 
Then he looked at her, and she sang : 

“ The roses grow in the valley, 

Where the Christ-Child we shall see.” 

Then Kay burst into tears. He cried so hard that 
the splinter of glass swam out of his eye. Then he 
knew Gerda, and said joyfully, “ Gerda, dear little 
Gerda, where have you been all this time, and where 
have I been ? ” And he looked all around him, and 
said, “ How cold it is, and how large and empty it 
looks here,” and he clung to Gerda, and she laughed 
and wept for joy. 

It was so pleasing to see them that even the pieces 
of ice danced ; and when they were tired and went to 


4 


50 


HANS ANDERSEN 


lie down, they formed themselves into the letters of 
the word which the Snow Queen had said Kay must 
find out before he could be his own master and have 
the whole world and a new pair of skates. 

And Gerda kissed his cheeks, and their bloom 
came back again ; she kissed his eyes, and they 
shone like her own ; she kissed his hands and feet, 
and he became quite healthy once more. The Snow 
Queen might come home now when she pleased, for 
there stood the word she wanted, written in letters 
of shining ice, and Kay was free. 

Then they took each other by the hand and went 
forth from the great palace of ice. They spoke of 
the grandmother and of the roses on the roof, and as 
they went on, the winds were at rest, and the sun 
burst forth. When they came to the bush with red 
berries, there stood the reindeer waiting for them, 
and he had brought a young reindeer cow with 
him, whose udders were full, and the children drank 
her warm milk and kissed her on the mouth. 

They carried Kay and Gerda first to the Fin- 
woman’s hut, where they warmed themselves in the 
hot room, and she told them how to get home. 
Next they went to the Lapwoman, who had made 
some new clothes for them, and got her sledge 
ready for them. Both the reindeer ran by their 
side, and followed them as far as the boundaries 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


51 


of the country, where the first green leaves were 
budding. And here they took leave of the two 
reindeer and the Lapwoman, and they all said, 
“ Farewell.” 

Then birds began to twitter, and the forest was 
full of young green leaves; and out of it came a 
beautiful horse, which Gerda remembered, for it 
was one of those which had drawn the golden 
coach. A young girl was riding upon it with a 
shining red cap on her head and pistols in her 
belt. It was the little robber-maiden. She knew 
Gerda at once, and Gerda knew her : it was a joy- 
ful meeting. 

“You are a fine fellow to go gadding about in 
this way,” said she to little Kay. “ I should like to 
know whether you deserve that any one should 
go to the end of the world to find you.” 

But Gerda patted her cheeks, and asked after 
the prince and the princess. 

“They are gone to foreign countries,” said the 
robber-girl. 

“ And the crow?” asked Gerda. 

“Oh, the crow is dead,” she replied. “His tame 
sweetheart is now a widow and wears a bit of 
black worsted round her leg. But now tell me 
how you managed to get him back.” 

Then Gerda and Kay told her all about it. 


52 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


“ Snip, snap, snurre ! it’s all right at last ! ” said 
the robber-girl. 

She took both their hands, and promised that 
if ever she should pass through their town, she 
would call and pay them a visit. And then she 
rode away. 

But Gerda and Kay went hand in hand toward 
home ; and as they came nearer the sj>ring appeared 
more and more lovely with its green leaves and 
beautiful flowers. Very soon they saw the large 
town where they lived and the tall steeples of the 
churches in which the sweet bells were ringing a 
merry peal. 

They entered the town and found their way to 
the grandmother’s door. They went up the stairs 
into the little parlor, where everything was in the 
same place as before. The old clock was going “tick, 
tick,” and the hands pointed to the time of day ; but 
as they passed through the door into the room, they 
discovered that they were both grown up, and become 
a man and woman. The roses out on the roof were 
in full bloom and peeped in at the window, and 
there stood the little stools. Kay and Gerda sat 
down holding each other by the hand, and the mem- 
ory of the dreary palace of the Snow Queen vanished 
like a painful dream. 

Grandmother sat in the bright sunshine reading 


THE SNOW QUEEN 


53 


aloud from the Bible, “ Except ye become as little 
children ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of 
God.” And Kay and Gerda looked into each other’s 
eyes and all at once understood the words of the old 
hymn : 

“ The roses grow in the valley, 

Where the Christ-Child we shall see.” 

And they both sat there, grown up, yet children at 
heart ; and it was summer — warm, beautiful summer. 


THE TINDEB-BOX 


Once upon a time a soldier came marching along 
the highroad “ left, right — left, right.” He had 
his knapsack on his back and a sword by his side, 
for he had been in the wars and he was now on his 
way home. He met an old witch on the road. She 
was very ugly; her under lip hung right down upon 
her breast. 

“ Good evening, soldier,” said the old witch. 
“What a fine sword and what a big knapsack you 
have! You are a real soldier; you shall have as 
much money as you want.” 

“ Thank you, old woman,” said the soldier. 

“ Do you see that tree ? ” said the witch, pointing 
to a tree which stood beside them. “ It is quite 
hollow inside. You must climb to the top, where 
you will see a hole through which you can let your- 
self slide down and get far down into the tree. I 
will tie a rope round your waist, so that I can pull 
you up again when you call me.” 

“ What shall I do down in the tree ? ” asked the 
soldier. 

“Get money,” said the witch. “Listen to me. 
When you get to the bottom of the tree you will 


THE TINDER-BOX 


55 


find yourself in a large liall lighted up by three 
hundred lamps. You will see three doors which 
you can open ; the keys are in the locks. 

“ When you get into the first room you will see 
in the middle of the floor a large chest, on the top 
of which a dog is sitting. He has a pair of eyes as 
large as teacups, but you must not mind that. I will 
give you my blue checked apron, which you must 
spread out on the floor ; then go quickly and take 
the dog, put him on my apron, open the chest, and 
take as many pennies as you like. 

“They are all of copper; but if you would rather 
have silver you must go into the next room. There 
a dog is sitting with a pair of eyes as large as mill- 
wheels, but you must not mind that ; put him on my 
apron and help yourself to the money. 

If, however, you want gold you can have that as 
well, and as much as you can carry if you will go 
into the third room. But the dog that sits on the 
chest there has eyes as big as a tower, but don’t 
trouble about him either. Just put him on my 
apron and he will not harm you, and take as much 
gold as you like from the chest.” 

“ That’s not at all bad,” said the soldier. “ But 
what am I to give you, old witch, for, of course, you 
want something yourself ? ” 

“ No,” said the witch, “ I do not ask for a single 


56 


HANS ANDERSEN 


penny. Only promise to bring me an old tinder-box 
which my grandmother left behind the last time she 
was down there.” 

“Very well ; I promise. Let me get the rope round 
my waist,” said the soldier. 

“ Here it is,” said the witch, “ and here is my blue 
checked apron.” 



The soldier then climbed up into the tree, let him- 
self down into the hole, and stood now, as the witch 
had said, in a great hall where three hundred lamps 
were burning. 


THE TINDER-BOX 


57 


He opened the first door, and there sat the dog 
with eyes as large as teacups staring at him. 

“You’re a nice fellow,” said the soldier, and he 
set him on the witch’s apron and took as many 
copper pennies as his pockets could hold. Then he 
locked the chest, set the dog on it again, and went 
into the second room. Aha ! there sat the dog 
with eyes as big as mill-wheels. 

“ You shouldn’t stare so hard at me,” said the 
soldier; “it might hurt your eyes.” And he put 
the dog on the witch’s apron. But when he saw all 
the silver money in the chest he threw away all the 
copper money he had, and filled his pockets and 
knapsack with the silver money. Then he went 
into the third room. But, oh, horror ! The dog in 
there really had eyes as big as towers, and they went 
round and round in his head like wheels. 

“ Good evening,” said the soldier, and he touched 
his cap, for he had never seen such a dog as that 
before. But after looking at him closely for a 
while, the soldier thought he had been civil enough, 
so he placed the dog on the apron, and opened the 
chest. Oh ! what a lot of gold ! Enough to buy 
the whole town if he wished. Yes, there was plenty 
of money, sure enough. 

The soldier now threw away all the silver money 
he had, and took gold coin instead. He filled his 


58 


HANS ANDERSEN 


pockets and knapsack, liis cap and liis boots, so that 
he could hardly walk. Now he had plenty of 
money ! lie put the dog back on the chest, closed 
the door, and then called up through the tree : 

“Now, pull me up, old witch.” 

“ Have you the tinder-box ? ” asked the witch. 

“ Why, no,” said the soldier. “ I had forgotten 
all about it.” Then he went and got the tinder-box. 

The witch drew him up, and he stood on the 
highroad once more, with his pockets, his knap- 
sack, his cap, and his boots full of money. 

“ What are you going to do with the tinder-box?” 
asked the soldier. 

“That has nothing to do with you,” said the 
witch. 

“ If you don’t tell me,” said the soldier, “ I’ll cut 
your head off.” 

“No ! ” said the witch. 

So the soldier drew his sword and cut off her head. 

Then he put the tinder-box in his pocket, threw 
his money into the old woman’s apron, tossed it like 
a bundle across his back, and set out for the town. 

It was a fine town. He put up at the very best 
inn, ordered the best rooms and the dishes he was 
fond of — for now he was rich and could have what 
he liked. 

The servant who cleaned his boots thought they 


THE TINDER-BOX 


59 


were very shabby for such a rich man to wear, for 
he had not yet had time to buy new ones. The 
next day, however, he got new boots and fine 
clothes ; and now the soldier looked like a fine 
gentleman, and the people told him about all the 
grand things in their town, and about the king, and 
what a beautiful princess his daughter was. 

“ Where can one see her? ” asked the soldier. 

“ She is not to be seen at all,” they said ; “ she 
lives in a big palace of copper, with many walls and 
towers round it. No one but the king can go in 
and out there, because it has been foretold that she 
will marry a common soldier, and the king will 
not hear of that.” 

“I should like very much to see her,” thought 
the soldier, but of course he could not do that. 

He began leading a merry life ; he went to the 
theatre and drove in the king’s park. He also gave 
a great deal of money to the poor, for he remem- 
bered how hard it was to be poor. 

He now had a number of friends who all said he 
was a “ jolly fellow,” and this the soldier liked to 
hear. 

But as he went on spending money every day, 
and did not get any more, he was at last left with 
only two shillings. He had to give up the nice 
rooms he had been living in, and move to a tiny 


60 


HANS ANDEKSEN 


garret, under the roof, where he had to brush his 
own boots and to mend them with a darning-needle; 
and none of his friends came to see him, for they 
all said they could not walk up so many stairs. 

One dark evening he found he was not even able 
to buy himself a candle, when suddenly he remem- 
bered there was a candle-end in the tinder-box, 
which he had taken out of the hollow tree for the 
old witch. 

He got the tinder-box, but no sooner had he 
struck a few sparks from the flint and steel, than 
the door flew open, and the dog with eyes as big as 
teacups stood before him, and said : 

“ What orders, master ? ” 

“ Hello, what’s this ? ” said the soldier. “ This is a 
jolly tinder-box if I can get what I want in this way.” 

u Bring me some money,” said he to the dog. 
and off the dog went ; and the next minute he was 
back again, holding a large bag full of money in his 
mouth. 

The soldier very soon discovered the value of the 
tinder-box. If he struck it once, the dog who sat 
on the chest with the copper money came; if he 
struck it twice, the one who had charge of the 
silver money came ; and if he struck it thrice, the 
one who had the gold came. 

So the soldier moved down into his nice rooms 


THE TINDER-BOX 


61 


again, got fine clotlies once more, and then all liis 
friends remembered to come to see him and seemed 
to be very fond of him. 

One day be thought to himself, “ It is very 
strange that no one can get a sight of that princess. 
They all say she is very beautiful, but what is the 
good of that when she must always sit inside that 
great copper palace? Shall I ever be able to see 
her, I wonder. But where is my tinder-box ? ” He 
struck a light and, whisk ! there stood the dog with 
eyes as large as teacups. 

“It’s midnight, I know,” said the soldier, “but 
I should like so much to see the princess, if only 
for a moment.” 

The dog was out of the room in an instant, and 
before the soldier could give it a thought, he saw 
him returning with the princess, who was lying on 
the dog’s back asleep. She was so lovely that any 
one could see she was a real princess. The soldier 
could not help it ; he had to kiss her. 

The dog then ran back with the princess. But 
in the morning, while having breakfast with her 
parents, the princess told them she had such a won- 
derful dream in the night about a dog and a 
soldier. She had ridden upon the dog, and the 
soldier had kissed her. 

“ That’s a pretty story, I must say ! ” said the queen. 


62 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


One of the court ladies was then set to watch by 
the princess’s bedside next night, to see if it really 
had been a dream, or what it might be. 

The soldier had a great longing to see the lovely 



princess again, and in the night the dog came for her. 
lie took her on his back and ran as fast as he could, 
but the court lady put on spring-heeled boots and 
ran behind, keeping up the same pace as they. 
When she saw them disappear in a big house, she 
thought to herself : “ Now I know where it is,” and 
she made a big cross on the gate with a piece of 


THE TINDER-BOX 


63 


chalk. She then went home, and soon afterward 
the dog came back with the princess ; but when he 
saw that a cross had been put on the gate where the 
soldier lived, he took a piece of chalk and made a 
cross on all the gates all over the town, so that the 
court lady might not be able to find out the right 
gate. 

Early the next morning the king and queen went 
with the court lady and the officers of the household 
to see where the princess had been. 

“There it is!” said the king, when he saw the 
first gate with a cross on it. 

“ No, my dear, there it is ! ” said the queen, who 
saw another gate with a cross. 

“ But here is one, and there is one ! ” said all of 
them ; wherever they looked there were crosses on 
the gates. So they knew it would be of no use to 
go on searching any farther. 

But the queen was a very clever woman; she 
could do something more than ride in a carriage. 
She took her large pair of gold scissors and cut out 
a neat bag from a piece of silk. This bag she filled 
with fine wheat flour and tied it round the prin- 
cess’s neck. Then she cut a small hole in the bag, 
so that the flour might be scattered on the ground 
along the way the princess went. 

In the night the dog came again. He took 


64 


HANS ANDERSEN 


the princess on his back and ran with her to the 
soldier, who was so deeply in love with her, and who 
wished so much he had been a prince, that he might 
make her his wife. 

The dog did not notice that the flour was running 
out of the bag all the way from the palace right up 
to the soldier’s window, where he climbed up along 
the wall with the princess. 

In the morning the king and queen could easily 
see where their daughter had been, and so they took 
the soldier and put him in prison. 

There he sat. Oh, how dark and miserable it 
was! And the people said to him, “ To-morrow you 
will be hanged.” That was not pleasant to hear, 
and besides, he had left the tinder-box at the inn. 

Next morning he could see through the little win- 
dow between the iron bars how the people were 
hurrying out of the town to see him hanged. He 
could hear the drums beating, and see the soldiers 
marching. All the people ran out to look at them, 
and a shoemaker’s boy, with a leather apron and with 
slippers on his feet, ran so fast that one of his slip- 
pers flew off and struck against the wall where 
the soldier stood looking out through the iron 
grating. 

“Hello, you shoemaker’s boy! You need not be 
in such a hurry,” said the soldier to him; “there'll 


THE TINDER-BOX 


65 


be nothing going on till I come ! If you will 
run over to where I have been living and get my 
tinder-box, I'll give you four shillings; but you must 
put your best foot foremost.” 

The shoemaker’s boy was glad to earn the four 
shillings, and rushed off and got the tinder-box, and 
gave it to the soldier. And now we shall see what 
happened. 

Outside the town a large gibbet had been raised, 
and round about stood the soldiers and many hun- 
dred thousand people. The king and the queen sat 
on a beautiful throne right opposite the judges and 
the whole court. 

The soldier was already standing at the top of the 
ladder, but as they were going to place the halter 
round his neck, he said that they always allowed 
a poor sinner to have an innocent wish granted be- 
fore he suffered his punishment. He would like so 
much to smoke a pipe of tobacco; it would be the 
last pipe he would get in this world. 

The king would not say no to that, and so the 
soldier took the tinder-box and struck a light once, 
twice, thrice ! and there stood all the dogs — the one 
with eyes as big as teacups, the one with eyes as 
large as mill-wheels, and the one whose eyes were 
like towers. 

^ Now help me, so that I shall not be hanged,” 


5 


66 


HANS ANDERSEN 


said tlie soldier. Then the dogs rushed at the 
judges and the whole court, seized one by the legs 
and one by the nose, and tossed them all miles up 
in the air. 

“ I will not be touched,” said the king. But the 
largest dog seized him, and threw him after the 
others. 

Then the soldiers and all the people were afraid, 
and cried, “ Good soldier, you shall be our king, and 
you shall marry the beautiful princess.” 

So they placed the soldier in the king’s carriage, 
and the three dogs ran on in front and cried, 
“ Hurrah ! ” and the little boys whistled through 
their fingers, and the soldiers presented arms. 

The princess came out of the copper castle, and 
was married to the soldier. The wedding lasted a 
whole week, and the dogs sat at the table and stared 
with all their eyes. 


THE WILD SWANS 


I 

THE MAGIC SPELL 

Far away from here, in the land where the swal- 
lows make their home when we have winter, there 
lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter 
named Elisa. 

The eleven brothers, who were all princes, went 
to school each with a star on his breast and a sword 
by his side ; they wrote on golden slates with dia- 
mond pencils, and knew their lessons by heart just 
as well as if they read them from a book. One 
could see at a glance that they were princes. Yes, 
these children led a happy life, but it was not 
always to be so. 

Their mother died when Elisa was a very little 
girl, and the king married a wicked woman who 
was not at all kind to the poor children. They 
felt this the very first day. 

When the wedding took place, there was a great 
feast at the palace, and the children were playing 
at “ having company,” but instead of their getting, 
as they always did, all the cakes and roasted apples 


68 


HANS ANDERSEN 


that they wanted, the queen gave them only sand 
in a teacup, and said they might pretend it was 
something nice. 

The next week she sent Elisa away to some 
peasants in the country, and before long she made 
the king believe all sorts of things about the poor 
princes, so that he did not trouble himself any more 
about them. 

“Fly out into the world and shift for yourselves,” 
said the wicked queen. And the princes were 
turned into eleven wild swans. With a strange cry 
they flew out through the palace windows and 
away over the park and the forest. 

It was still quite early in the morning when they 
passed the peasant’s cottage where their sister lay 
asleep. Here they flew round and round over 
the roof, twisting their long necks and flapping 
their wings, but nobody heard or saw them ; they 
had to set out again, high up toward the clouds, till 
they came to a great, gloomy forest which reached 
down to the shore. 

Poor little Elisa was standing in the peasant’s 
parlor, playing with a green leaf, the only plaything 
she had. She made a hole in the leaf, looked up at 
the sun through it, and thought she saw the bright 
eyes of her brothers. 

One day passed just like another. When the 


THE WILD SWANS 


69 


wind blew through the big hedges of roses outside 
the cottage, it would whisper to the roses, “ Who 
can be more beautiful than you ? ” And the roses 
shook their heads and said, “Elisa.” And when 
the old woman sat in the doorway on a Sunday 
reading her hymn-book, the wind would turn over 
the leaves and say to the book, “ Who can be better 
than you ? ” “ Elisa ! ” answered the hymn-book. 
And it was the real truth that the roses and the 
hymn-book said. 

When Elisa was fifteen years old, the time came 
for her to return to her father’s palace. She was 
very beautiful, and when the stepmother saw this 
she was filled with anger and hatred against the 
young girl. She would have liked to turn her into 
a wild swan like her brothers, but she dared not do 
so, as the king would, of course, want to see his 
daughter. 

Early in the morning the queen went into the 
bath, which was built of marble, and where there 
were soft cushions and beautiful rugs. She took 
three toads, kissed them, and said to one of them, 
“ Sit on Elisa’s head when she gets into the bath, 
so that she may become lazy like yourself ! ” “ Sit 

on her forehead,” she said to the second toad, “so 
that she may become ugly like yourself, and her 
father will not know her!” “Rest close to her 


70 


HANS ANDERSEN 


heart,” she whispered to the third ; “ let her heart 
become wicked, so that she may suffer through it ! ” 
She then put the toads into the clear water, which at 
once turned a greenish color. 

She called Elisa, undressed her, and let her go into 
the water, and as the young girl ducked her head, 
one of the toads settled itself on her hair, another 
on her forehead, and the third on her breast; but 
Elisa did not seem to notice them. As soon as she 
stood up, there were three red poppies floating on 
the water. The toads had become flowers, through 
resting on her head and near her heart, because she 
was so good and innocent. If they had not been 
poisonous, and if the wicked queen had not touched 
them, they would have turned to roses. 

When the wicked queen saw this, she took some 
walnut juice and rubbed Elisa with it till she became 
quite brown ; then she smeared her pretty face with 
an ill-smelling salve, and ruffled her lovely hair, so 
that no one would have known the beautiful princess. 

When her father saw her he became quite fright- 
ened, and said that she was not his daughter. Poor 
Elisa ! only the house-dog and the swallows seemed 
to know her. 

Then she began to cry and thought of her eleven 
brothers, who were all lost to her. She stole out 
of the palace and walked the whole day across 


THE WILD SWANS 


71 


fields and meadows till she came to a big forest. 
She did not know where she wanted to go, but she 
felt very sad and longed, oh so much, for her brothers. 
She felt sure that they, too, had been driven out 
into the world, and she made up her mind she 
would try to find them. 

She had been in the forest only a short time, 
when night set in. She had strayed away from the 
paths; so she lay down on the soft moss, said her 
evening prayers, and leaning her head up against 
the stump of a tree, went to sleep. 

The whole night long she dreamed about her 
brothers and how they were all playing again as 
children, writing with diamond pencils on golden 
slates. 

It was late when she awoke. She heard the 
splashing of water, and making her way through the 
thick bushes, she found a beautiful lake, so clear 
and still that she could see herself plainly in it. 

As soon as she saw her own face she became 
frightened, so brown and ugly was it, but when she 
wet her hand and rubbed her eyes and forehead, 
the white skin shone through. Then she took off 
all her clothes and went into the fresh water and 
bathed, and when she came out, a prettier royal child 
than she could not have been found in the world. 

When she was dressed again, and had plaited 


72 


HANS ANDERSEN 


her long hair, she went to the sparkling spring and 
drank out of the hollow of her hand. 

She wandered farther and farther into the forest 
without knowing where she was going, but she felt 
that God would take care of her. She found some 
wild forest apples and made her dinner of them. 
It was so quiet in the forest that she heard her own 
footsteps, heard every little dry leaf crushed under 
her foot ; not a bird was to be seen, and the trees 
grew so thickly that the sun could not shine through 
their branches. 

The night was very dark — not one single little 
glow-worm glittered in the moss — but Elisa lay 
down again and slept, and had happy dreams. 


II 

THE FLIGHT OVER THE SEA 

In the morning she met an old woman with a 
basket of berries, and the woman gave her some. 
Elisa asked her if she had not seen eleven princes 
riding through the forest. 

“No,” said the old woman; “but yesterday I saw 
eleven swans, with golden crowns on their heads, 
swimming down the river close by.” 

And she led Elisa some distance farther till they 


THE WILD SWANS 


73 


came to a slope at the bottom of which a river 
wound its way. 

Elisa bade farewell to the old woman, and 
walked along the river till it flowed out into the 
great open sea. 

The ocean lay before the young girl, but not a 
sail was to be seen out there ; not a boat was in 
sight. How was she to continue her journey ? She 
looked at the countless little pebbles on the shore. 
The water had worn them quite round. Glass, iron, 
stones, everything that had been washed up by the 
sea had been shaped by the water. 

“ It rolls on and on always, and the hardest sub- 
stance must in the end yield to it. I will be just 
as patient. Thanks for the lesson you have given 
me, you clear, rolling waves ! One day, my heart 
tells me, you will carry me to my dear brothers.” 

Elisa sat watching the changing clouds and the 
beautiful sea till sunset. Then, suddenly, she saw 
eleven swans, with golden crowns upon their heads, 
flying toward the land, one behind another. Elisa 
went up the slope and hid herself behind a bush. 
The swans settled down close to her, and began flap- 
ping their large, white wings. 

The moment the sun sank below the water’s edge 
the swans’ plumage fell off the birds, and there stood 
eleven handsome princes, Elisa’s brothers. She gave 



Wr'W&Z-tf feftk. •■ £ ' L 


SBrro& ; . • / * 

^SSwra^mK 1 1 



SftjjjB^ra 

*>r&W ‘rt'vJuFt 


Si 





THE WILD SWANS 


75 ' 

a loud cry, for although they had changed greatly, 
she knew it was they. She ran into their arms and 
called them by their names. 

The brothers were delighted when they knew 
who it was and saw how tall and beautiful their 
sister had become. They laughed and they cried, 
and soon they came to understand how cruel their 
stepmother had been to them all. 

“We brothers,” said the eldest, “ must fly all day, 
as long as the sun is in the sky ; when it goes down 
we take our human shape again. At sunset we 
must always take care to be near a resting-place, for 
if at that time we were to fly toward the clouds, we 
should, as human beings, be plunged into the depths 
of the sea.” 

“We do not live here, but across the wide sea. 
There is no island on the way on which we can rest for 
the night, only a lonely little rock, just large enough 
for us all to rest upon when we sit side by side.” 

“ Wc are only allowed to visit our own home once 
a year, and then we can only stay eleven days. We 
have now but two more days left. How shall we 
take you with us? We have neither ship nor boat.” 

“ How shall I be able to save you ? ” asked the 
sister. 

And so they went on talking nearly the whole night, 
and only for a few hours did they get any sleep. 


76 


HANS ANDERSEN 


Elisa awoke at the sound of the rustling of wings. 
Her brothers had again been turned into swans, and 
were flying in large circles above her head, till at 
last they flew far away and out of sight. 

But one of them, the youngest, remained behind. 
He laid his head on her lap, while she stroked his 
white wings. Toward evening the others came 
back, and when the sun had gone down, they took 
their human shape again. 

“ To-morrow we must fly away from here, and we 
dare not return for a whole year ; but we cannot 
leave you here. Have you the courage to come with 
us ? Perhaps all our wings would be strong enough 
to carry you across the sea.” 

“Yes, take me with you,” said Elisa. 

They spent the whole night in making a big, 
strong net of the soft willow bark and the tough 
swamp grass. Upon this Elisa lay down, and when 
the sun rose and her brothers had been changed into 
wild swans, they seized the net with their beaks and 
flew high up toward the clouds with their dear sis- 
ter, who was still asleep. The sunbeams fell on her 
face, and one of the swans flew over her head so that 
his broad wings could give her shade. 

They were far away from land when Elisa awoke. 
She thought she was still dreaming, so strange did it 
seem to her to be carried high up in the air across 


THE WILD SWANS 


77 


the sea. By her side lay a branch with ripe berries, 
which her youngest brother had gathered and placed 
at her side. She smiled at him, for she knew it was 
he who flew right over her head and shaded her 
with his wings. 

They were so high up that the first ship they saw 
below them looked like a white sea-gull lying upon 
the water. 

Like an arrow they shot through the air the 
whole day. Toward evening dark clouds gathered, 
and Elisa was beginning to feel afraid, when she 
caught sight of the little rock. It did not seem 
larger than the head of a seal. 

The sun was almost set when her foot touched the 
firm ground. Suddenly she saw her brothers stand- 
ing round her, arm in arm, but there was only just 
room enough for them all. 

The sea dashed against the rock and came upon 
them like a heavy shower of rain ; flashes of light- 
ning appeared in the sky, and they could hear peal 
after peal of thunder ; but sister and brothers held 
each other by the hands, talking and singing hymns 
the whole night long. 

At daybreak the air was pure and still. As soon 
as the sun rose the swans flew away with Elisa from 
the rock. 

After flying nearly all day, Elisa at last saw the 


78 


HANS ANDERSON 


beautiful country she was going to, and before tho 
sun had set she was sitting on a mountain before a 
large cave which was overgrown with delicate green 
creepers. 

“ Now we shall see what you will dream about 
here to-night,” said the youngest brother, and he 
showed her the place where she was to sleep. 

“ Perhaps I shall dream how I may be able to 
save you,” she said. 

And she prayed to God so earnestly for help that 
even in her sleep she went on praying. She thought 
that a fairy came to her. This fairy was beautifully 
dressed, but she looked very much like the old 
woman who had given her the berries in the forest, 
and had told her about the swans with golden 
crowns. 

“Your brothers can be saved,” she said; “but 
have you courage, and can you work very hard ? Do 
you see the nettle which I hold in my hand ? A 
great many of this kind grow round about the cave 
in which you sleep; but, mark you, only those which 
grow there and on the graves of the churchyards 
can be used.” 

“ These you must gather, although they will blis- 
ter your hands. Tread the nettles with your feet 
and they will turn into flax. This you must twist, 
and then knit eleven shirts with long sleeves. Throw 








80 


HANS ANDERSEN 


these shirts over the eleven swans, and the spell 
will be broken. But you must remember that from 
the moment you begin your task till it is finished, 
even though it may take years, you must not speak. 
The first word you speak will go like a dagger to 
your brothers’ hearts and kill them ; on your silence 
depend their lives. Remember all this !” 

And then she touched Elisa’s hand with the net- 
tle, which burned like fire and caused her to awake. 
It was broad daylight, and close to where she had 
slept lay a nettle like the one she had seen in her 
dream. Then she fell on her knees and thanked 
God, and went out of the cave to begin her task 


III 

elisa’s task 

Elisa gathered the stinging nettles. They blis- 
tered her soft hands and arms like fire, yet she was 
quite willing to bear it all, if she could only save 
her dear brothers. She trod every nettle with her 
bare feet and twisted the green flax from it. 

When the sun had gone down her brothers came 
back. They grew frightened when they found her 
so silent, and thought it was some new witchery of 
their wicked stepmother ; but when they saw her 


THE WILD SWANS 


81 


hands they understood what she was doing for their 
sake. The youngest brother wept, and where his 
tears fell on her hands the pain ceased and the 
blisters vanished. 

She worked all night, for she could not rest till 
she had set free her dear brothers. All of the next 
day she sat alone, while the swans were away, and 
the time had never flown so quickly. One shirt was 
already finished and she had begun another. 

Just then a hunting horn startled Elisa. The 
sound came nearer and nearer ; she heard the bark- 
ing of dogs, and soon one of them jumped from the 
thicket, and then came another, and still another. 
In a few minutes all the huntsmen were there out- 
side the cave, and the handsomest among them was 
the king of the country. He went up to Elisa, for 
he had never seen a more beautiful girl in his life. 

“ How did you come here, you lovely child ? ” 
he said. Elisa shook her head; she dared not 
speak, for if she did, her brothers would be lost. 
She hid her hands under her apron, so that the 
king should not see the blisters. 

“ Come with me,” he said ; “ you must not stay 
here. If you are as good as you are beautiful, I 
will dress you in silks and velvet and place the 
golden crown upon your head and you shall live 
in my grandest palace.” And he lifted her on his 


6 







THE WILD SWANS 


83 


horse. She wept and wrung her hands, but the 
king said, “ I think only of your happiness. One 
day you will thank me.” And then he dashed off 
across the mountains holding her before him on his 
horse, and the huntsmen came rushing on behind. 

Toward sunset the city lay before them. The 
king led Elisa into the palace, where fountains were 
playing in the marble halls, and where every room 
had the most beautiful furniture and pictures, but 
she had no mind for such things. She wept wdiile 
the court ladies put lovely clothes on her and 
plaited pearls in her long hair. 

When she came before the court, she was so beau- 
tiful that everybody bowed before her, and the 
king chose her for his bride ; although the prime 
minister shook his head and whispered that she 
must be a witch. 

But the king would not listen to the prime min- 
ister. He ordered music to strike up, the loveliest 
girls to dance round her, and the most costly dishes 
to be served. She was led through lovely gardens 
and beautiful halls, but not a smile could be seen 
on her lips or in her eyes. 

The king now opened a door to a small room 
close to the one in which she was to sleep. Except 
that there was a carpet on the floor, the room was 
exactly like the cave in which she had been living. 


84 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


On the floor lay the bundle of flax which she had 
spun out of the nettles, and from the ceiling hung 
the shirt which she had finished — all of which one 
of the huntsmen had brought with him. 

“ Here you can imagine yourself back in your 
cave,” said the king. “Here is the work you were 
busy with there ; you can amuse yourself with it as 
much as you wish.” 

When Elisa saw these things, a smile played 
round her mouth, and the color came to her cheeks. 
She thought of how she should even yet be able to 
free her brothers, and she kissed the king’s hand. 
He pressed her to his heart and ordered all the 
church bells to be rung for the wedding. The 
beautiful dumb maiden from the forest was to 
become queen of the land. 

The prime minister then whispered wicked words 
into the king’s ears, but he took no heed of them. 

Elisa grew to love the king more and more, but 
her mouth was sealed — she dared not speak. Oh, 
how she longed to confide in him and tell him all 
her sufferings ! But she must remain dumb, and 
as dumb she must complete her task. She stole 
away at night, went into the little room which was 
fitted up like a cave, and knitted one shirt after 
another ; but when she began the seventh she had 
no flax. 


THE WILD SWANS 


85 


Slie knew that the nettles which she had to use 
grew in the churchyard ; but she herself must 
gather them. Ilow should she be able to get 
there ? 

She made up her mind to try; so with a heavy 
heart and trembling with fear she stole into the 
garden in the moonlight, walked through the long 
avenue of trees, and along the lonely streets to the 
churchyard. There, on one of the largest tomb- 
stones, she saw some ugly old witches sitting in a 
ring busy taking off their clothes as if they were 
going to bathe. 

Elisa had to pass close by them, and they glared 
at her with their evil eyes, but she said her prayers, 
gathered the stinging nettles, and carried them 
home to the palace. 

Only one human being had seen her, and that 
was the prime minister. He had been up while 
others slept. Now he felt sure that there was some- 
thing wrong with the queen : she was a witch, and 
that explained why she had so much, power over 
the king and the people. 

He told the king what he had seen. A couple 
of bitter tears ran down his cheeks, for he began to 
fear that what the prime minister said was true. 

That night, and for many nights after, the king 
followed Elisa, and day by day his brow became 


86 


HANS ANDERSEN 


darker. Elisa noticed this, but she could not 
understand the reason. It made her anxious, how- 
ever, and her suffering became greater and greater. 
But she would soon finish her work; there was 
only one more shirt to make. Only once more 
would she have to go to the churchyard and gather 
a few handfuls of nettles. 

Elisa went, but she was followed by the king and 
the prime minister. They saw her go through the 
gate of the churchyard, and when they came up to 
the tombstone they saw the witches sitting on it. 

The king’s heart was very heavy, but he said, 
“The people must judge her.” And the people 
gave judgment that she was to be burnt by fire. 

Elisa was led from the beautif id halls of the royal 
palace to a dark, damp dungeon, into which the wind 
whistled through the grated windows. Instead of 
velvets and silks, they gave her the bundle of net- 
tles she had gathered. The hard, stinging shirts she 
had knitted were to serve as mattress and coverlet, 
but they could not have given her anything she 
could have prized more. She began her work again 
and prayed to God to help her. 

Toward evening she heard the rustling of swan’s 
wings near the window grating. It was the young- 
est of her brothers, who had found her. She sobbed 
loudly for joy, for although she knew that the 


THE WILD SWANS 


87 


coming niglit might be her last, her work was 
almost done, and her brothers were near her. 

She went on steadily with her work. The little 
mice ran about on the floor and dragged the nettles 
to her feet, and a thrush settled itself near the win- 
dow grating and sang the whole night as merrily as 
it could, so that she should not lose courage. 

The next day the people streamed out through the 
town gate to see the witch burned. A miserable 
horse drew the cart on which Elisa sat. She had 
been given a coarse gown to wear ; her beautiful long 
hair hung loosely about her lovely head ; her cheeks 
were as pale as death ; her lips moved slowly, while 
her fingers were twisting the green flax : even on her 
way to death she would not give up the work she 
had begun. The ten shirts lay at her feet, and she 
was now busy knitting the eleventh, while the mob 
was hooting at her. 

“ Look at the witch, how she is mumbling to her- 
self ! There she sits with some of her witchery. 
Let us tear it into a thousand pieces.” 

And the people rushed at her to tear the shirts to 
pieces, when the eleven wild swans came flying and 
settled down round the cart, flapping their wings. 
At this the crowd drew back in terror. 

“ It’s a sign from heaven ! She must be innocent ! ” 
many whispered, but they did not say it aloud. 


88 


HANS ANDERSEN 


Suddenly Elisa threw the eleven shirts over the 
swans, and there stood eleven handsome princes; 
but the youngest had a swan’s wing instead of one 
of his arms, because she had not been able to finish 
one of the sleeves of the shirt. 

“ Now, I may speak ! ” she said. “ I am innocent !” 

And the people, who had seen what had taken 
place, bowed before her as if she were a saint ; but 
she sank fainting into her brothers’ arms, overcome 
by the excitement and grief she had gone through. 

“Yes, she is innocent,” said the eldest brother; 
and then he told everything that had happened, and 
while he spoke a perfume as from a million roses 
filled the air, for every log in the pile where she was 
to have been burned had taken root and put forth 
branches till they formed a hedge with red roses, 
above which bloomed a white, bright flower that 
shone like a star. The king plucked this flower and 
placed it on Elisa’s breast, and she awoke with peace 
and happiness in her heart. 

And all the church bells began ringing of them- 
selves, and the birds came flying into the town in 
great flocks. Such a wedding procession as that 
which returned to the palace no king had ever seen. 


THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER 


There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers ; 
they were all brothers, for they were born of the 
same old tin spoon. They all shouldered their mus- 
kets, they all looked straight before them, and they 
all had the same splendid red and blue uniform. 



The first words they ever heard were, “ Tin Sol- 
diers ! ” This was shouted by a little boy who 
clapped his hands when the lid was taken off the 
box in which they were lying. 


90 


HANS ANDERSEN 


It was the little boy’s birthday, and the soldiers 
had been given to him as a present. He began put- 
ting them on the table. They were all exactly alike, 
except one, and he had only one leg, because he had 
been cast last of all and there was not tin enough 
to fill the mould. But he stood just as firm on his 
one leg as the others on their two, and it was just 
this very soldier that became famous. 

On the table where the soldiers had been placed 
stood many other toys, but the finest of all was a splen- 
did castle made of cardboard. You could see right 
into the rooms through the small windows. In front 
of the castle some small trees were placed round a 
looking-glass which was to represent a lake. Swans 
made of wax swam on the lake. All this was very 
pretty ; but the prettiest of all was a little lady who 
was standing outside the open gate of the castle. 
She, also, was made of paper; but she had a dress 
of the finest gauze and a little, narrow blue ribbon 
over her shoulders, just like a scarf, and in the mid- 
dle of this ribbon was a shining tinsel rose as big as 
her whole face. The little lady stretched out both 
her arms, for she was a dancer, and she lifted one 
leg so high that the tin soldier could not see it. So 
he believed that she had only one leg like himself. 

“That’s the wife for me,” he thought; “ but she is 
very grand. She lives in a castle, while I have only a 


THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER 


91 


box, and there are five-and-twenty of us in it already. 
It is no place for her; blit I must try to make her 
acquaintance.” 

And then he lay down at full length behind a 
snuff-box which was on the table. There he could 
easily watch the dainty little lady, who remained 
standing on one leg without losing her balance. 

When evening came, the other tin soldiers were 
all placed in the box, and the people of the house 
went to bed. Then the toys began to have their 
own games. They played at “ war ” and at “ visit- 
ing” and “giving balls.” The tin soldiers rattled 
in their box, for they wanted to join in the fun, but 
they could not lift the lid. The nut-cracker turned 
somersaults, and the slate pencil did all sorts of 
tricks on the slate. There was such a noise that the 
canary woke up and began to chatter, and that in 
verse, too. 

The only two who did not stir from their places 
were the tin soldier and the little dancer. She was 
standing on the tip of her toes, with both her arms 
stretched out ; he remained quietly behind the snuff- 
box. He never took his eyes off her for a moment. 
The clock struck twelve and — bounce ! — the lid flew 
off the snuff-box ; but there was no snuff in it at all, 
only a little black goblin. It was a kind of a Jack- 
in-the-box, you know. 


92 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


“ Tin Soldier,” shouted the goblin, “ will you keep 
your eyes to yourself ? ” But the tin soldier seemed 
not to hear it. 

“ Just you wait till to-morrow,” said the goblin. 

When the children came in the next morning, 
they placed the tin soldier in the window. Now, 
whether it was the goblin who did it, or the draught, 
is not known, but the window flew open all of a 
sudden, and the soldier fell head foremost from the 
third story. It was a terrible fall. There he was, 
standing on his head, his sword sticking between 
two paving stones, and his leg pointing uji in the air. 

The servant-girl and the little boy ran down into 
the street at once to look for him, but although they 
very nearly trod upon him, they could not see him. 
If the soldier would only have cried out, “ Here I 
am ! ” they could have found him ; but he was too 
proud to cry for help while he wore a uniform. 

It began to rain ; the drops fell faster and faster 
till they poured down. When the rain was over, 
two boys came past. “ Look ! ” cried one of them, 
u there’s a tin soldier. Let’s give him a sail ! ” 

They made a boat out of a newspaper, and put 
the soldier in it, and soon he was sailing along the 
gutter, while the two boys ran beside him, clap- 
jflng their hands. Dear me ! how the waves rose in 
that gutter, and how fast the stream ran! But then 


THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER 


93 


it had been a heavy rain. The paper boat rocked 
up and down, and sometimes turned round so fast 
that the tin soldier was very nearly shaken over- 
board ; but he stuck to it manfully. Suddenly the 
boat shot under a bridge which formed part of a 
drain, and then it was dark as the tin soldier’s box. 

“ I wonder where I am going now,” he thought. 
“ Yes, yes, that’s the goblin’s fault. Ah ! if the little 
lady were only here along with me in the boat I 
should not mind if it were twice as dark.” 

Just then a large water rat who was living in the 
drain saw him. 

“ Have you a pass ? ” asked the rat. “ Give it to 
me at once.” 

But the tin soldier did not answer and grasped 
his musket still tighter. The boat sailed on and the 
rat followed it. How the rat gnashed his teeth ! 
He shouted out to all the bits of wood and straw 
which were floating about in the drain, “ Stop him ! 
stop him ! He hasn’t paid the toll ! he hasn’t shown 
his pass ! ” 

But the rush of the water in the drain carried the 
boat along faster and faster. The tin soldier could 
already see the bright daylight at the end of the 
drain, but he heard at the same time a roaring noise 
which was enough to frighten even a bold man. 
Only think — at the end of the drain the water rushed 


94 


HANS ANDERSEN 


out into a big canal ! And for him that was as dan- 
gerous as a big waterfall would be to us. He was 
too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the 
poor tin soldier qould only hold himself as stiffly as 
possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he 
was not afraid. 



The boat whirled round three or four times, and 
then filled with water to the very edge • nothing 
could save it from sinking. He now stood up to his 
neck in water, while deeper and deeper sank the 
boat. The water had now reached up to the soldier’s 


THE BRAVE TIN SOLDIER 


95 


head. He thought of the beautiful little dancer, 
whom he should never see again. The old nursery 
rhyme was ringing in his ears : 

“Danger, danger! Warrior bold, 

Prepare to meet thy grave so cold ! ” 

At this moment the boat went to pieces, and the 
tin soldier was sinking, when a great fish snapped 
him up and swallowed him. 

What a dark place it was ! It was even darker 
than the drain, and there was so little room, too. 
But our brave tin soldier did not flinch a bit ; he lay 
at full length, shouldering his musket. 

The fish was rushing about and struggling fear- 
fully. At last he became quiet; something like a 
flash of lightning passed through him. It w r as broad 
daylight, and somebody cried out, “A tin soldier ! ” 

The fish had been caught and brought to market, 
where he was sold, and had now been carried up 
into the kitchen, where the cook cut him open with 
a big knife. She took the soldier and carried him 
into the parlor. Everybody there was anxious to see 
the tin soldier who had travelled about in the inside 
of a fish, but the tin soldier was not at all proud. 

They put him on the table, and — how many 
strange things happen in this world ! — there he was 
in the very room where he fell out of the window. 
There were the same children, the same playthings 


96 


HANS ANDERSEN 


standing on the table, and the pretty castle with the 
dainty little dancer at the door. She was still stand- 
ing on one leg, and kept the other high in the air. 

It touched the tin soldier so much to see her that 
he almost wept tin tears, but he kept them back. 
He looked at her and she looked at him, but they 
did not say anything. 

Then one of the little boys took the tin soldier 
and threw him into the fire. 

The flames lighted up the tin soldier. He felt a 
heat that was terrible, but whether it was the heat 
from the fire or from his love he could not be quite 
sure. The colors had quite gone off him, but 
whether this had happened to him on his journey or 
was caused by his grief no one could tell. He looked 
at the little lady and she looked at him ; he felt he 
was melting, but he remained firm, shouldering his 
musket. 

Suddenly the door of the room flew open; the 
draft caught the dancer, and she flew straight into 
the stove to the tin soldier ; there was a blaze — and 
she was gone. The brave tin soldier melted down 
into a little lump, and when the servant-girl took 
out the ashes next morning she found him in the 
shape of a little tin heart. Of the beautiful dancer 
nothing remained but the tinsel rose, and that was 
burned as black as a coal. 


THE NIGHTINGALE 

I 

THE NIGHTINGALE IN THE FOREST 

In China, you know, the emperor is a Chinaman, 
and all those whom he has about him are Chinamen. 
The story I am going to tell you happened many 
years ago, but perhaps just on that account it is 
worth hearing. The emperor’s palace was the most 
splendid in the world. It was made entirely of 
porcelain — very costly, but so delicate and brittle 
that one had to be careful in touching it. 

In the garden were the most wonderful flowers, 
and to the most beautiful of them little bells were 
tied, so that no one should pass by without noticing 
the flowers. This garden was so big that the gar- 
dener himself did not know where the end was. If 
you kept on walking, you came to a forest with very 
high trees and deep lakes. The forest went down 
to the sea, where great ships could sail under the 
branches of the trees. 

In this forest lived a nightingale which sang so 
sweetly that even the poor fisherman, who had so 
many other things to do, would rest on his oars and 


98 


HANS ANDERSEN 


listen when he went out at night to pull in his nets. 
“ How beautiful it is ! ” he would say. 

Visitors came from all parts of the world to the 
city of the emperor and admired it, as well as the 
palace and the garden; but when they heard the 
nightingale they said, “ That is the best of all.” 

And when the travellers went home they talked 
of all they had seen, and many of them wrote books 
about the city and the palace and the garden, but 
they did not forget the nightingale, which they 
praised beyond everything. 

These books went all over the world, and. at last 
some of them reached the emperor. 

“ What’s this ? ” said the emperor. “ The nightin- 
gale ! I don’t know anything at all about him — I 
have never heard of him. To think one has to find 
out such things from books ! ” 

So he called his chamberlain, who was a very 
grand person, and said to him, “I hear there is 
a very remarkable bird here, called a nightingale. 
They say he is the best thing in my empire. Why 
have I never heard anything about him ? It is my 
wish that he shall appear here this evening and sing 
before me ! ” 

“ I have never heard him mentioned before,” said 
the chamberlain; “but I shall look for him — I 
shall find him !” 


THE NIGHTINGALE 


99 


The chamberlain ran all over the palace, asking 
those he met if they had heard of the nightingale. 
But no one had, and the chamberlain ran back to 
the emperor and said : 

“ There is no such thing as a nightingale. It is a 
story made up by the person who wrote the book. 
Your Majesty must not believe everything that is 
written.” 

“ But the book in which I have read it,” said the 
emperor, “ has been sent me by the great and mighty 
Emperor of Japan, and it cannot be a falsehood ! 
I will hear the nightingale, and if he is not brought 
to me this evening, all the court shall be trampled 
upon after they have supped ! ” 

So again the chamberlain ran about the palace, 
up and down the staircases and through the halls, 
but he could find no one who knew anything of the 
nightingale, until he came across a poor little maid 
in the kitchen, who said, “Oh, yes! the nightingale ! 
I know him well. How he can sing ! Every even- 
ing they let me take home some leavings from the 
table for my poor sick mother, who lives down by 
the shore. When I feel tired on my way back and 
rest in the forest, I hear the nightingale sing. He 
brings tears to my eyes. It is just as if my mother 
kissed me ! ” 

“ My little kitchen maid,” said the chamberlain, 


100 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“I will get you a better place in the kitchen and 
permission to see the emperor dine, if only you can 
take us to the nightingale.” 

And so they set out for the forest, and half the 
court went with them. As they walked along a cow 
began lowing. 

“ Ah ! ” said one, “ there he is ! What a strong 
voice for such a small creature ! I have certainly 
heard him before.” 

“ No, that’s the cow lowing ! ” said the kitchen 
maid. “ We are still far from the place.” 

Some frogs now began croaking in a pool. 

“ Beautiful ! ” said another. “It sounds like tiny 
church bells ! ” 

“No, that’s the frogs,” said the kitchen maid. 
“ But I think we shall soon hear him.” 

Just then the nightingale began to sing. 

“ There he is ! ” said the little girl. “ Listen, 
listen ! And there he sits ! ” and she pointed to a 
little gray bird up among the branches. 

“ Is it possible ! ” said the chamberlain. “ I never 
imagined he would look like that ! How common 
he looks ! He must have lost his color at seeing so 
many grand folks here.” 

“ Little nightingale,” cried the kitchen maid quite 
loudly, “ our gracious emperor would like so much 
to have you sing before him.” 


THE NIGHTINGALE 


101 


With the greatest pleasure,” said the nightin- 
gale, and began to sing in good earnest. 

“ It sounds like silver bells,” said the chamberlain. 
“ It is very strange that we have never heard him 
before. He will be a great success at court.” 

“ Shall I sing once more before the emperor ? ” 
said the nightingale, for he thought the emperor was 
among the people there. 

“ My sweet little nightingale,” said the chamber- 
lain, “ I have great pleasure in commanding you to 
appear at a court festival, where you shall delight 
His Majesty with your charming singing.” 

“ It sounds best in the greenwood,” said the 
nightingale. But he was quite willing to go when 
he heard that the emperor wished it. 

II 

THE NIGHTINGALE IN THE PALACE 

At the palace everything was polished and bright- 
ened up for the festival in the evening. 

In the middle of the great hall, where the em- 
peror sat, a golden perch had been fixed for the 
nightingale. The whole court was present, and the 
little kitchen maid had permission to stand behind 
the door. All were dressed in their best, and all 
were looking at the little gray bird. 


102 


HANS ANDERSEN 


And the nightingale sang so beautifully that tears 
came into the emperor’s eyes and rolled down his 
cheeks. Then the nightingale sang still more beau- 
tifully ; his song went straight to every one’s heart, 
and the emperor was so happy that he said the 
nightingale should have his golden slipper to wear 
round his neck. But the nightingale thanked the 
emperor, and said it was reward enough to see him 
happy. 

The nightingale now remained at court, had his 
own cage, and was allowed to take a walk twice a 
day, and once at night. There were twelve foot- 
men to attend upon him, each of whom had a silk 
ribbon which was fastened to the nightingale’s leg. 
They held these ribbons very tightly. There was 
no pleasure at all in that kind of an outing. 

One day a parcel came for the emperor, and on 
the outside was written “ Nightingale.” 

“Here we have a new book about our wonderful 
bird,” said the emperor. But it was not a new 
book ; it was a toy nightingale, which had been 
made to look exactly like the living one. It was 
set with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. 

As soon as the toy bird had been wound up, it 
began to sing one of the songs of the real bird, 
while the tail moved up and down, sparkling with 
gold and gems. 


THE NIGHTINGALE 


103 


“Now the birds must sing together! What a 
duet it will be ! ” 

And so the birds sang together, but they did not 
get on well ; for the real bird had to sing in his own 
way, while the toy bird had to sing just as it was 
made to sing. 

So they decided to let the toy bird sing alone. It 
had just as much success as the real bird, and be- 
sides it was much prettier to look at. 

It sang the same piece over thirty-three times, and 
still the people did not get tired of it. Then the 
emperor thought the living nightingale ought to 
sing a little, too, but where was he ? Nobody had 
noticed that he had flown out through the open 
window, away into the green forest. 

And afterwards, because the people came to like 
the toy nightingale so much, the living one was 
banished from the land. 

A whole year passed by. The emperor, the 
court, and all the other Chinamen knew by heart 
every little note in the toy nightingale’s song, but 
just on that account they liked it best. They could 
now join in the song themselves, which they did ; 
and even the emperor sang. It was delightful ! 

But one evening, when the toy bird was singing 
its best, and the emperor lay in bed listening to it, 
something inside the bird went “pop a spring had 


104 


IIANS ANDEESEN 


broken, and, whir-r-r, round went all the wheels, 
and then the music stopped. 

The emperor jumped out of bed at once and called 
for his physician. But how could he be of any 
help? Then they brought the watchmaker, and 
after a great deal of talking and a long and care- 
ful examination he got the bird into something 
like order, but he said it must not be used so 
much, for the wheels were worn, and it was not 
possible to put in new ones. It would only be safe 
to let the bird sing once a year. 

Five years passed away, and now the country was 
in great sorrow, for the emperor was ill, and not 
expected to live. 

One night, the poor emperor lay suffering in his 
bed, scarcely able to breathe, when suddenly the 
most lovely song was heard, close to the window — 
it was the little, living nightingale, which sat outside 
on a branch of a tree. The bird had heard of the 
emperor’s illness, and had come to sing to him of 
life and hope. 

“Thanks, thanks!” said the emperor. “You 
heavenly little bird, I know you well. I banished 
you from the land, and yet you have come to soothe 
me when I am ill. How can I reward you ? ” 

“You have rewarded me,” said the nightingale. 
“ I drew tears from your eyes the first time I sang 


THE NIGHTINGALE 


105 


before you ; I shall never forget that ! Those are 
the jewels that bring joy to a singer’s heart. But 
go to sleep now, and grow well and strong. I will 
sing to you.” 

And he sang, and the emperor fell into a sweet 



sleep. Ah ! how mild and refreshing that sleep 
was ! The sun was shining through the windows 
when he awoke, quite well again. And the nightin- 
gale still sat and sang. 

“You must stay with me always,” said the em- 
peror. “You shall sing only when you please, and 
the toy bird I will break into a thousand pieces.” 


106 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“ Do not do that,” said the nightingale. “ It has 
done what it could. Keep it as before. I cannot 
settle down and live in the palace. Let me come 
when I like. I will then sit on the branch outside 
the window, in the evenings, and sing to you. I will 
sing to you about the good and the evil round you 
which are kept hidden from you ; for the little song- 
bird flies round to the poor fisherman, to the peas- 
ant’s roof — to every one — far away from you and your 
court. I will come ; I will sing to you. But one 
thing you must promise me — do not tell any one that 
you have a little bird that tells you everything, and 
then all will go still better with you.” 

And then the nightingale flew away. 


THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY- 
SWEEP 


Have you ever seen a really old wooden cupboard, 
quite black with age and covered with odd carvings ? 
Just such a cupboard was standing in a parlor. It 
had been left to the family by a great-grandmother. 
In the middle of the cupboard door was carved the 
full-length figure of a man which it would make you 
laugh to look at. He had goat’s legs, small horns on 
his head, and a long beard. The children always 
called him “ Major-and-lieutenant-general- war-com- 
mander-sergeant of the Billy-goat-legs.” 

He was always looking toward the table under 
the mirror, for there stood a lovely little shepherd- 
ess of porcelain. Her shoes were gilt and her dress 
was fastened up with a rose, and then she had a 
gilt hat and shepherd’s crook. She was really 
lovely. 

Close to her stood a little chimney-sweep, black 
as coal, but also made of porcelain. He was quite 
clean and as nice as anybody. As to his being a 
sweep, that was of course because he had been made 
to be one ; the workmen might just as well as not 
have made a prince of him. 


108 


HANS ANDERSEN 


There he stood with his ladder, looking quite 
handsome, with a face as red and white as a girl’s. 
This, of course, was really a mistake, for it might as 
well have been a little blackened. He was stand- 
ing close to the shepherdess. They had both been 
placed where they stood, and having been so placed, 
they became engaged, for they suited each other 
very well, as they were both young people and 
were made of the same porcelain. 

Close to them stood another figure which was 
three times as big as they. It was an old China- 
man who could nod his head. He, also, was made 
of porcelain, and used to say that he was grand- 
father of the little shepherdess ; but I don’t think 
he could prove that. He would, however, insist 
that he had some influence over her, and that was 
the reason he had been nodding to Major Billy-goat- 
legs, who was courting the little shepherdess. 

“ Now there is a husband for you,” said the old 
Chinaman. “ A man who I think is actually made 
of mahogany. He can make you Lady Major. He 
has got the whole cupboard full of silver besides 
what he has in his secret drawers.” 

“ I don’t want to go into the dark cupboard,” said 
the little shepherdess. “ I have heard say that he 
has eleven porcelain wives in there ! ” 

“ Then you can be the twelfth,” said the China- 


THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY-SWEEP 109 


man. “ To-night, as soon as the old cupboard be- 
gins to creak, you two shall be married, as true as I 
am a Chinaman ! ” And then he nodded his head 
and fell asleep. 

But the little shepherdess wept and looked at 
the beloved of her heart, the porcelain chimney- 
sweep. 

“ I think I must ask you, 57 she said, “ to go with 
me out into the wide world, for we cannot remain 
here.” 

“ I will do everything you want me to do,” said 
the little sweep. “Let us go at once. I think I 
shall be able to make a living.” 

“I wish we were safely down from the table, 77 
she said. “ I shall not be happy till we are out in 
the wide world.” 

And so he comforted her and helped her down, 
showing her how she could place her little feet on 
the carved edges and down along a leg of the table, 
and he also made use of his ladder. But when they 
looked in the direction of the old cupboard, all the 
carved things seemed to be in a state of confusion. 
Major Billy-goat-legs jumped into the air and shouted 
across to the old Chinaman, “They are running 
away ! they are running away ! 77 

This frightened them, and they jumped up into 
the drawer of the window seat. 


110 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“ I cannot bear it in here,” she said. “ I must get 
out of this drawer.” But when they got down on 
the floor and looked up at the table, the old China- 
man had awakened and all his body was rocking to 
and fro. 

“The old Chinaman is coming!” cried the little 
shepherdess, and fell down on her porcelain knees, 
so great was her distress. 

“ I have an idea,” said the sweep. “ Let us creep 
into the great rose jar which stands in the corner ; 
there we can lie on roses and lavender and throw 
salt into the old Chinaman’s eyes when he comes.” 

“That will not do,” she said. “Besides, I know 
that he and the rose jar were once engaged. No, 
there is no help for it; we must go out into the wide 
world!” 

“Have you really courage to go with me out into 
the wide world?” asked the sweep. “Have you 
thought about how big it is, and that we could 
never come back here again ? ” 

“Yes, I have,” she said. 

Then the sweep said, “We can go through the 
chimney. After we get there I know my way well. 
We shall climb up so high that they cannot reach 
us, and at the top there is a hole leading out to the 
wide world.” 

And he led her to the door of the stove. 


THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY-SWEEP 111 


“ It looks dark in there,” she said. But she went 
with him for all that, though it was pitch dark. 

“ Now we are in the chimney,” he said. “ See ! 
Look at the beautiful star that is shining just 
above us ! ” 

And it was a real star in the sky which shone 
down upon them, as if it wanted to show them the 
way. They crawled and crept on, and a dreadful 
way it was, so high, so very high. But he lifted 
her and supported her. He held her and showed 
her the best places where she could put her little 
porcelain feet. At last they reached the top of the 
chimney, where they sat down, for they were really 
tired, and no wonder. 

The sky with all its stars was above their heads, 
and below them lay all the roofs of the city. They 
could see far around them, far out into the wide 
world. The poor shepherdess had never thought it 
was anything like this. She leaned her little head 
against her chimney-sweep, and cried till the gilding 
was washed oil* her girdle. 

“Oh, this is too much for me ! ” she said. “I can- 
not bear it. The world is too big. I wish I were 
back again on the little table under the mirror. 
You may as well go back with me if you care at all 
for me.” 

The sweep tried to reason with her. He spoke 


112 


HANS ANDERSEN 


of the old Chinaman and Major Billy-goat-legs, but 
she sobbed so bitterly that he could not do anything 
but humor her. 

And so with a great deal of trouble they crawled 
down the chimney again. They crept through the 
pipe, which was anything but pleasant, and at last 
they stood inside the dark stove. They stopped 
behind the door to listen to what was going on in 
the room. They peeped out — alas ! there, in the 
middle of the floor, lay the old Chinaman. 

He had fallen down from the table when he tried 
to run after them, and lay there broken into three 
pieces. The whole of his back had come off in one 
piece, and the head had rolled over into a corner. 
Major Billy-goat-legs stood where he had always 
stood, and seemed to be buried in thought. 

“ It is terrible ! ” said the little shepherdess. “ My 
old grandfather is broken to pieces, and it is all our 
fault ! I shall never get over it.” And then she 
wrung her tiny little hands. 

“He can be mended,” said the sweep. “Now do 
take things quietly. If they cement his back and 
put a strong rivet in his neck, he will be as good as 
new, and be able to say a great many unpleasant 
things to us yet.” 

“Do you think so?” she said. And they climbed up 
again on to the table where they had stood before. 


THE SHEPHERDESS AND THE CHIMNEY-SWEEP 113 

"Well, tliis is as far as we have got,” said the 
chimney-sweep. "We might as well have saved 
ourselves all the trouble.” 

“ If only old grandfather were mended ! ” said 
the shepherdess. 

And he was mended. The people in the house 
had his back cemented, and a strong rivet was put 
in his neck. He was as good as new, except that 
he could no longer nod, 

"You seem to have become rather proud since 
you were broken,” said Major Billy -goat-legs ; "but 
I don’t think it is anything to be proud of. Shall I 
have her, or shall I not ? ” 

And the chimney-sweep and the shepherdess 
were dreadfully afraid that the old Chinaman would 
nod "Yes.” But he could not, on account of the 
rivet in his neck. 

So the little porcelain people were left to them- 
selves, and they blessed the rivet in grandfather’s 
neck, and loved each other till they broke to 
pieces. 


8 


LITTLE IDA’S FLOWERS 


“ My poor flowers are quite dead,” said little Ida. 
“ They were so beautiful last night, and now all the 
leaves are withered ! Why do they do that ? ” she 
asked the student, who was visiting the family. 

Ida was very fond of him, for he could tell the 
most beautiful stories and do the most amusing 
things. 

“ Don’t you know what is the matter with them ? ” 
said the student “The flowers were at a ball last 
night and to-day they are tired. That’s why they 
hang their heads.” 

“ But flowers cannot dance,” said little Ida. 

u Oh, yes,” said the student. “When it is dark 
and we are asleep they run about quite merrily. 
They have a ball almost every night.” 

“ Where do the prettiest flowers dance ? ” asked 
little Ida. 

“ Haven’t you often been outside the town gate to 
the great palace, where the king lives in summer, and 
where there is a garden full of lovely flowers ? They 
hold real balls out there.” 

“ I was there in the garden yesterday with my 
mother,” said Ida. “ But all the leaves had fallen 
off the trees and there were no flowers at all ! Where 
are they ? In the summer I saw so many ! ” 


LITTLE IDA’S FLOWERS 1 1 5 

“They are in the palace,” said the student. “You 
must know that as soon as ever the king and his 
court move into the town the flowers at once run 
away from the garden up to the palace and make 
merry. You ought to see that. The two most 
beautiful roses take a seat on the throne, and then 
they are king and queen. All the red cockscombs 
range themselves by their side and stand bowing. 
They are the chamberlains. Then all sorts of lovely 
flowers arrive and they have a great ball. The blue 
violets are the naval cadets and dance with hya- 
cinths and crocuses, who are young ladies. The 
tulips and the large tiger-lilies are the old ladies. 
They watch the dancing and see that everything is 
nicely done.” 

“But,” said little Ida, “doesn’t any one do any- 
thing to the flowers for dancing in the king’s 
palace ? ” 

“ No one really knows anything about it,” said the 
student. “ Sometimes the old keeper who looks 
after the palace comes round at night; but he has a 
large bunch of keys, and as soon as the flowers hear 
the rattling of the keys they stand quite still, or 
hide themselves behind the long curtains and peep 
out.” 

“ Then the old steward says, * I can smell flowers 
in here.’ But he can’t see them.” 


116 


HANS ANDERSEN 


“ That’s great fun,” said littla Ida, clapping her 
hands. “Can the flowers in the Botanical Gardens 
also go there ? Can they go such a long way ? ” 

“Yes, of course,” said the student, “for they can 
fly if they like. Haven’t you seen the beautiful red 
and yellow butterflies that look so much like flowers? 
That is what they once were. They have flown 
from their stalks right up into the air, flapping their 
leaves as if they were little wings. It may be, how- 
ever, that the flowers in the Botanical Gardens have 
never been to the king’s palace, and do not know 
anything about the merry times out there.” 

“You know the professor who lives next door, 
don’t you ? Well, next time you go into his garden 
whisper to one of the flowers that there is going to 
be a ball at the palace this evening, and he will tell 
it to the others, and they will all fly off. When the 
professor comes into the garden there will not be a 
single flower left, and he will not be able to make 
out what has become of them.” 

“But how can one flower tell it to the others? 
Flowers cannot talk ! ” 

“That’s true,” answered the student, “but they 
can make signs. Have you never noticed that when 
the wind blows a little the flowers nod to each other 
and move all their green leaves ? They understand 
it as plainly as if they spoke.” 


LITTLE Ida’s flowers 


117 


“ Can the professor understand their language ? ” 
asked Ida. 

“ Yes, of course ! He came down into his garden 
one morning and saw a big nettle making signs with 
its leaves to a beautiful red carnation. It was say- 
ing, ‘ You are so beautiful, and I love you with all 
my heart ! ’ The professor does not like such things, 
so he rapped the nettle on its leaves, for they are its 
fingers, you know ; but it stung him, and since then 
he never dares touch a nettle. 

“ How funny,” said little Ida. 

Little Ida thought a great deal about what the 
student had said. She was sure now that the 
flowers hung their heads because they were tired. 
So she carried them with her to a nice little table 
where she kept her toys, and where there was a 
whole drawer full of pretty things. 

Her doll, Sophie, lay asleep in her little bed, but 
Ida said to her, “ You really must get up, Sophie, 
and be content with lying in the drawer to-night. 
The poor flowers are tired, and they must lie in 
your bed.” And so she took up the doll, who looked 
very cross, though she did not say a single word, 
because she was angry at being taken out of her bed. 

Little Ida put the flowers in the doll’s bed, pulled 
the little quilt over them, and said they must lie 
quiet and she would make tea for them. Then she 


118 


HANS ANDEKSEN 


drew the curtains close round the little bed, so 
that the sun should not shine in their eyes. 

The whole evening Ida kept thinking about the 
flowers, and when she had to go to bed herself she 
ran to the window where her mother’s tulips and 
hyacinths stood. 

She whispered quite softly to them, “ I know 
you are going to a ball to-night.” But the flowers 
pretended not to understand and never stirred a 
leaf. Still little Ida knew what she knew ! 

When she was in bed she lay for a long time 
thinking how nice it would be to see the flower- 
dance in the king’s palace, and she said to herself, 
“ I wonder if my flowers have really been there!” 
Then she fell asleep. 

In the night little Ida awoke. She had been 
dreaming of the flowers. It was very quiet in the 
bedroom where she was lying. The night-lamp was 
burning on the table, and her father and mother 
w^ere asleep. 

“I wonder if my flowers are still lying in Sophie’s 
bed,” she said to herself. “Howl should like to 
know ! ” She raised herself a little, and looked 
toward the door, which stood half open. She 
listened, and it seemed to her that she heard some 
one playing upon the piano, but quite softly and 
more sweetly than she had ever heard it before. 


LITTLE Ida’s flowers 


119 


“ Now all the flowers must be dancing,” thought 
she. “ Oh, how I should like to see them ! ” But 
she was afraid to get up, for fear of waking her 
father and mother. u If they would only come in 
here ! ” she said. But the flowers did not come, and 
the music kept on playing so beautifully that she could 
not stay in bed any longer. So she crept out of her 
little bed, stole softly to the door, and looked into 
the room, and, oh dear ! what a pretty sight she saw ! 

There was no night-lamp in the room, but still it 
was quite light. The moon shone through the win- 
dow into the middle of the room. It was almost as 
bright as day. The hyacinths and tulips were standing 
in two long rows along the floor. Not one was left 
on the window where the empty flower-pots stood. 

On the floor the flowers were dancing gracefully, 
holding each other by their green leaves as they 
swung round and round. 

No one noticed little Ida. Then she saw a large 
blue crocus jump right on to the middle of the table 
where the toys where standing, and walk straight 
up to the doll’s bed, and pull aside the curtains. 
There lay the withered flowers, but they got up at 
once and nodded their heads to the others, to show 
that they also wanted to dance. They did not ap- 
pear at all withered now. 

Just then there was a loud knocking inside the 


m 


IIANS ANDERSEN 


drawer where Sophie, Ida’s doll, lay with many other 
toys. She put out her head, and asked in great sur- 
prise, u Is there a ball here ? Why has no one told 
me about it ? ” 

She sat down on the drawer, and thought that 
some of the flowers would be sure to come and ask 
her to dance. But as they did not come, she let 
herself fall upon the floor so as to make a great 
noise. Then all the flowers came running up to 



her, and asked if she had hurt herself. They 
were all very polite, especially those that had been 
in her bed. 


LITTLE Ida’s flowers 


121 


But she had not hurt herself at all; and all Ida’s 
flowers thanked her for her nice bed, and said they 
loved her very much. They led her into the mid- 
dle of the floor, where the moon was shining, and 
danced with her, while the other flowers formed a 
circle round them. Sophie was now very much 
pleased, and said they might keep her bed; she did 
not at all mind lying in the drawer. 

But the flowers said, “We are very much obliged 
to you, but we cannot live very long. To-morrow 
we shall be dead. But tell little Ida she must bury 
us in the garden where the canary bird is lying. 
Then we shall grow up again next summer and be 
prettier than ever.” 

“ No, you must not die ! ” said Sophie, and then 
she kissed the flowers. 

At that moment the door of the room flew open, 
and many beautiful flowers came dancing in. Ida 
could not make out where they came from. She 
thought that they must be the flowers from the 
king’s palace. First of all came two lovely roses, 
with their little golden crowns. They were the 
king and the queen. Then came stocks and carna- 
tions, bowing on all sides. They had brought music 
with them. Large poppies and peonies were blow- 
ing pea-shells till they were quite red in the face. 
The little blue-bells and the little white snowdrops 


122 


HANS ANDEKSEN 


jingled merry bells. That was wonderful music ! 
Then there came the violets and the primroses, the 
daisies and the lilies-of-the-valley, and many other 
flowers. They all danced, and all the flowers kissed 
one another. It was such a pretty sight ! 

At last the flowers said good-night to one another, 
and little Ida stole back to her bed, where she 
dreamed of all that she had seen. 

When she got up next morning, she went at once 
to the little table to see if the flowers were still 
there. She pulled aside the curtains of the little 
bed, and there they all lay. But they were quite 
faded; more so than they were the day before. 
Sophie lay in the drawer where she had been put. 
She looked very sleepy. 

“ Can you remember what you were to tell me ? ” 
said little Ida ; but Sophie only looked stupid and 
did not say a word. 

“ You are not at all kind,” said Ida, “and yet they 
all danced with you.” So she took a little paste- 
board box on which were painted beautiful birds. 
She opened it and put the dead flowers into it. 

“That will make a pretty casket for you,” she 
said, “and when my cousins come, they shall help me 
to bury you in the garden, so that you can grow up 
next summer and be prettier than ever ! ” 

Ida’s cousins were two boys whose names were 


LITTLE Ida’s flowers 


123 


Gustave and Adolph. Their father had given them 
each a new crossbow, and when they came they 
brought these with them to show Ida. She told 
them about the poor flowers that were dead, and the 
boys helped her to bury them. Both the boys went 
first with their crossbows on their shoulders, and 
little Ida followed behind with the dead flowers in 
the box. A little grave was dug in the garden ; Ida 
first hissed the flowers, and then laid them in the 
grave, while Gustave and Adolph shot their cross- 
bows over it, for they had neither guns nor 


cannons. 


CHOICE READING 


FOR CHILDREN OF THE LOWER SCHOOL GRADES IS FOUND IN OUR 

STANDARD LITERATURE SERIES 

Among the volumes having such adaptation are: 

FAIRY TALES. For Second School Year 

Containing eight selections. “The Amber Witch,” “Little 
One Eye, Little Two Eyes, and Little Three Eyes, ,, “Cin- 
derella,” etc. Selected and adapted by Prof. Edward R. Shaw, 
New York University School of Pedagogy. 102 pages. Paper, 
12^2 cents; Cloth, 20 cents. 

ROBINSON CRUSOE 

The story in simple form for young readers, by Prof. Edward 
R. Shaw, of the School of Pedagogy, New York University. 

1 12 pages. Illustrated. Paper, 12^ cents; Cloth, 20 cents. 

A WONDER-BOOK FOR GIRLS AND BOYS 

Four complete selections from Hawthorne. “The Golden 
Touch,” “The Paradise of Children,” “ The Three Golden 
Apples,” and “The Miraculous Pitcher.” 121 pages. Paper, 
12^ cents; Cloth, 20 cents. 

BLACK BEAUTY 

Miss Sewell’s autobiography of a horse. Black Beauty tells in 
a simple and charming way all about his life. It is edited by 
Professor Shaw, of the School of Pedagogy, New York Univer- 
sity. 217 pages. Paper, 20 cents; Cloth, 30 cents. 

Complete list of Standard Literature Series — Fifty Numbers, 
sent on request. 


University Publishing Company 

27-29 WEST 23d STREET, NEW YORK 
120 Summer St., Boston 714-716 Canal St., New Orleans 


GOLDEN -ROD BOOKS 


GRADED READINGS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME 

BY 

JOHN H. HAAREN, A.M. 

Brightest books for Elementary Grades — To supplement 
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers. 

I. RHYMES AND FABLES, 64 pages, 12 cents 

II. SONGS AND STORIES - 96 pages, 15 cents 

III. FAIRY LIFE ----- 126 pages, 20 cents 

IV. BALLADS AND TALES, 160 pages, 25 cents 

Nursery rhymes and fables. Current folk-lore stories. 
Fairy life stories, telling of the little people who were once 
supposed to have an influence on human affairs. Tales or 
legend and romance. 

Attractive illustrations. Clear presswork. Artistic binding. 

IF YOU ARE LOOKING 
FOR SOMETHING BETTER 

this series will interest you, — presenting an interesting collection 
of children’s classics, pithy proverbs, the fables which are the 
common heritage of the Aryan people, with the cherished nursery 
lore of generations. 

Correspo?iaence invited. 


University Publishing Company 

27-29 WEST 23d STREET, NEW YORK 



New and Enlarged Edition 
of a Most Attractive Book 

The work presented in the new edition of 

HOLMES’ FIRST READER 

is in line with the best modern thought. The 
book consists mainly of a carefully graded series 
of bright and interesting lessons on such things 
as American children like to think and talk about. 
The words used are carefully selected from the 
home vocabulary. 

For incidental teaching of other things, special 
lessons are introduced which correlate language 
study with 

NUMBER, COLOR, FORM 
AND NATURE STUDY 

In these lessons many attractive pictures in 
color are introduced. 

In boards, 96 pages, 16 cents 
In cloth, 120 pages, 20 cents 


University Publishing Company 

27-29 WEST 23d STREET, NEW YORK 




Maury’s 

Elementary Geography 



New Edition — Revised 

Race Types in Color Landscapes in Color 
Relief Maps in Color 


T HIS new and enlarged edition of a popular 
book is a book of to-day. The plates are 
new. The text is thoroughly revised. 
The study of the world is begun at the home 
of the pupil, and other countries and places are 
presented in their relation to it. Colored relief 
maps picture to the eye the physical features of 
the continents in illustration of the political maps 
and the text. 

Full-page colored illustrations accentuate the 
chief thought of the book, — the Earth as the 
Home of Man, — by giving vivid pictures of 
the people of each continent and of the houses 
they live in. The numerous illustrations are 
from photographs. Each picture teaches a 
definite idea, and the descriptive text under it 
makes the picture an integral part of the lesson. 

Correspondence invited. Address 


University Publishing Company 

NEW YORK BOSTON NEW ORLEANS 


AUG -4 190 



; 4 1902 ■ 

1 con' nn r%, v 

AUG. 4 IPO? 

AUG. It 1902 





















HOLMES 


Have superior 

of text and beauy 01 iUa...u..jns. 

Correlative Teaching of Color, etc. The Teachn 
Color ;/J 7 brm, Number and Size, Language and Nature Stm 
is c^efully correlated, in the First Reader, with the word- 
stuyy and Reading. 

jScience in Stories. In the successive books, interesting 
facjis about Plant Life and Animal Life are woven into 
chaj rming stories, well graded and judiciously interspersed 
with other reading matter. 

ne thing is done with the simpler facts of Physics, 
su ne forces of water, etc., etc. The lessons are bright 

a ^tractive to children, and at the same time give them 
xhose elementary facts which the Committee of Fifteen 
/recommend being correlated with reading. 

{ Literature in Readings. For the introduction of pupils 
to Good Literature, these books are unsurpassed. They con- 
tain an unusual number of selections from standard authors. 

The subsidiary Language Exercises are of special 
excellence. 

First Reader, in board binding, 96 pages, 16 cents. 

^ First Reader, in cloth binding, i 58 pages, 20 cents. 

C>cond Reader, in cloth binding, 144 pages, 25 cents. 

^hird Reader, in cloth binding, 208 pages, 40 cents. 

, Fourth Reader, in cloth binding, 288 pages, 50 cents. 

Fifth Reader, in cloth binding, 384 pages, 72 cents. 

UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 


27 and 29 West 23d St., 
NEW YORK. 


20 Summer St., 
BOSTON. 


714-716 Canal St., 
NEW ORLEANS. 


By Charles Dickens L 
By Nath’l Hawthor/ne. 
By Nath’l Hawthorne. 
By Washington 7 
By Victor Hu*/ 


ng. 


library of congress 

12 

"0 002 572 521 

» . r> 's. enlmore Cooper, 

gle). ROB RO>. 'V - - • V, Valter Scott. 

mgle). THE ALHAMBhA, - WasH Ington Irving. 

^Single). CHRISTMAS STORIES, By Charle s Dickens. 

8 (Single). ENOCH ARDEN and Other Poems, T<= "•nyson. 

7 (Double). KENILWORTH, - - By Sir Walter See ^t. 

8(Double). THE DEERSLAYER, By J. Fenimore Coi\ per. 

9 (Louble). LADY OF THE LAKE, By Sir Walter Scot 1 I. 

10 (Double). HORSE-SHOE ROBINSON, By John P. Kenn >dy. 

11 (Single). THE PRISONER OF CHILLON and Other Pot ?ms 

By Lord Byron. 

12 (Double). HAROLD, - - - By Sir E. Bulwer-Lytt on. 

13 (Single). GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, By Jonathan Swift. 

14 (Single). PAUL DOM BEY, - 

15 (Single). TWICE-TOLD TALES, 

16 (Single). A WONDER-BOOK, - 

17 (Single). THE SKETCH BOOK, 

18 (Double). NINETY-THREE, - 
19 (Double). TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, D. 

20 (Single). THE SNOW IMAGE, Etc., By Nath’l/Flaw 

21 (Single). EVANGELINE, - - By H. W. Longfe 

22 (Single). LITTLE NELL, - - By Char ^s Dicker s. 

23 (Single). KNICKERBOCKER STORIES, By \ fash’n Irving. 

24 (Double). IVAN HOE, - By Sir Walter Scott. 

25 (Single). ROBINSON CRUSOE, By Daniel Defoe. 

26 (Double). POEMS OF KNIGHTLY ADVENTURE, 

By Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Macaulay, Lowell. 

27 (Double). THE WATER WITCH, ByJ. Fenimore Cooper. 

28 (Single). TALES OF A GRANDFATHER, - - Scott. 

29 (Double). THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, - Cooper. 

30 (Single). THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, By John Bunyan. 

31 (Double). BLACK BEAUTY, - By Anna Sewell. 

32 (Double). THE YEMASSEE, - By W. Gilmore Simms. 

33 (Double). WESTWARD HO! - By Chas. Kingsley. 

34 (Double). ROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, - Verne. 

35 (Single). SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, - - - Wyss. 

36 (Double). DAVID COPPERFIELD’S CHILDHOOD, Dickens 
37 (Double). THE SONC OF HIAWATHA, H. W. Longfellow. 

38(Doubie). THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, Bulwer-Lytton/ 

39 (Single). FAIRYTALES. For 2d School Year. Selected' 

40 iSinarleL THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL, - Sco* 

41 (Double). THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE, Martir. 

42(Double). FIVE GREAT AUTHORS, Complete Selectk 
43(Double). SILAS MARNER, - By George Eliot. 

44 (Single). THE DUTCHMAN’S FIRESIDE, - Pauldir. 

45 (Douoie). THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, - Goldsmith\ 

46 (Double). GRANDFATHER’S CHAIR, - Nath’l Hawthorne 

47 (Double). THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH 

And Other Poems, - By H. W. Longfellow. 

48 (Single). GOLDSMITH, Onn * , uOnNS. and utner roman- 
tic Eighteenth Century Poets. 

49 (Single). TH E M ERCH ANT OF VEN ICE. - Shakesoeare 

50 (Double). WAVE RLE Y, - By Sir Walter Scott. 

51 (Single). JULIUS CAESAR - - - - Shakespeare. 

52 (Single). HANS ANDERSEN’S BEST STORIES. 


UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

27-29 West 23d Street, New York. 


